You may have seen the Guardian article the other day ‘Oh, what a big gun you have': NRA rewrites fairytales to include firearms. The title pretty much is the whole story, except that these are tales posted on the NRA’s website and not (at this time) actual published books. I was looking at the post and the books themselves and for whatever reason it made me think about the current crop of picture books for kids today about the candidate for president. Candidate singular, you see, because of the people running, only one has several picture book biographies to her name.
Flashback: The year is 2008 and I’m attending a Simon & Schuster publisher preview. Here is my write-up from the time. What you will not find in the write-up was what happened when the John McCain picture book biography was shown to the librarians in attendance. They were . . . let us say less than pleased as a whole, though obviously I cannot speak for everyone. The editor, incensed, stood and suddenly made a passionate speech about having to show both sides of every story. That we owe it to our young readers to have picture book biographies of the candidates of both parties.
Fast Forward to 2016: Now I cannot say what the future holds in political publishing. All I can say is that at this moment in time, there are at least three picture book biographies out about Hillary Clinton and only Hillary Clinton. They are:
I confess that it was a co-worker who pointed out to me the red, white, and blue streaks in her hair. Totally missed that on a first read.
I’ll not comment on these individually (though I do a fantastic one-woman show reenacting the opening of one of these three books – see if you can guess which one). What I will say is that in the children’s book publishing industry few find themselves surprised when only one candidate gets a book. I’m no psychic, but I think it’s safe to say that we probably won’t be seeing a Trump or Cruz picture book bio from a mainstream publisher in the next year. Now I could be wrong, but the difference between McCain and these two potential candidates is immense. Quite frankly, McCain was better suited to the format.
So what does this say about the publishing industry of 2016 and is it the same or different from 2008? No idea. One thing is certain, though. No matter who secures the Republican nomination, picture book bios of that person will appear. They’ll just be coming from smaller, conservative presses.
Don’t forget about President Squid!
Excellent point, good citizen. I amend my point forthwith.
I haven’t read the first two yet but the one by Markel was hilarious! I want that same team to do books for all the candidates!
“I’m no psychic, but I think it’s safe to say that we probably won’t be seeing a Trump or Cruz picture book bio from a mainstream publisher in the next year.”
You won’t see a Bernie Sanders picture book, either (I just did a search), along with none for any other candidate. There’s also a Who Is Hillary Clinton? coming out later this year (part of the Who Was/Who Is? series)
I was already sent a copy of the Markel one to review. And put it right into the prize box for summer reading. We’ll see if there are any takers.
My thoughts exactly!
You know, if she wins, HIllary Clinton would be the first woman President, and that might just represent a meaningful achievement to a generation of girls….
(I’m waiting until after the election before making purchasing any of these books, anyway. We already have two children’s/teen bios of Clinton.)
Yup. Unless he gets the nomination. In which case you will see the fastest creation of a picture book biography of the man of all time.
Actually . . . I think it’ll be a picture book autobiography . . . and the claim, no doubt, will be that he illustrated it, too. 😱
There isn’t a Bernie Sanders picture book, but there ARE comic books: ‘Bernie’ by Ted Rall is a full-out graphic novel. He and Hillary also have single issue comics bios from Stormfront Publications and Bluewater Comics, respectively.
You can bet I bought copious copies of that for my library system. I’ve yet to see them sitting on the shelf. The Snowden bio by Rall too.
I’m not sure the world needs a Trump picture book, but if we get one, I hope it’s illustrated by C.F. Payne.
Oh my. I can actually see it already.
I’m glad I’m not the only one holding off; I know several of these titles have received starred reviews, which is fantastic, but frankly, our patrons are not clamoring for picture book biographies of political candidates of any political persuasion. We always have need and want for biographies of presidents; if she does win, then we will order those books (and be prepared for them to be on backorder, I am sure). We *did* order that John McCain biography written by his daughter, and both copies circulated fewer than 10 times (and we are in a county that swings Republican). The Obama picture books did well when they were published (the more report-friendly biographies now circulate a bit more, especially in February), and if anyone noticed that we didn’t have any Mitt Romney books for children in our collection, no one mentioned it to us. I will order the Who Is Hillary Clinton? book when it is published; that series is popular, and will have information about her political career that will be useful for some time.