Acton Figueroa

This feels like a book that was written in reverse.

Author: Clifford's in a pie-eating contest.
Editor: That wouldn't be fair. He's giant.
Author: Um, well, maybe his pie is giant?
Editor: Why do they have a giant pie?
Author: To use up the giant pumpkins?
Editor: Pumpkins?
Author: Yeeeeahhh, it's a fair and they have all these large pumpkins to judge and they don't want them to go to waste.
Editor: So they feed them to dogs?
Author: No, no, it's a pie-eating contest with people.
Editor: Then why is show more Clifford in it?
Author: Because Emily Elizabeth was supposed to be, but then she had to drop out. So he's taking her place.
Editor: Why?
Author: Ummm, she's helping someone else running a food stand and gets caught up in that.
Editor: Caught up in running a food stand?
Author: Sure, sure. She's just like volunteering, you know, but then like someone gets sick and suddenly her help is critical.
Editor: And you can set that up in just a couple pages?
Author: No, you're right, that'll probably be half the book. We'll need to introduce the stand. Show how the person might get sick. Show them actually get sick. Have someone make a fuss about how necessary Emily Elizabeth's help is. But I can probably cut the pie-eating contest down to a couple pages to make room.
Editor: You don't think the kids will want a few more pages of Clifford eating the big pie?
Author: I mean, why would they? We all know he's gonna just wolf it down and win anyway. He's giant.
Editor: Sure, sure. Oh, and can you get Cleo and T-Bone in there. The kids just love those two.
Author: Yeah, they can be in the pie-eating contest with Clifford.
Editor: I thought you said it was for people.
Author: Well, people and regular-sized dogs.
Editor: Wait . . .
Author: Or if you want to give me a couple dozen more pages I can explain how they got in by --
Editor: No, no. We're good. Just send me the script. show less

Emily Elizabeth learns about elections in school, so she decides to have one to determine a president for the local park. She of course nominates Clifford, but her rival, Jetta, nominates her dog, Mac. When it comes to campaigning, Clifford and Emily Elizabeth go high -- leading by example -- while Jetta and Mac go low with negative posters about Clifford. The results and the lack of hurt feelings make it too unrealistic, even for a book with a giant red dog.

Clifford for President
Acton Figueroa
Scholastic, 30p.
Paperback early reader
2004
5-8 years
After Emily Elizabeth learns about presidential elections in school, she decides to organize an election for president of the dog park, and Clifford is in the running. While each colorfully illustrated page has only 2 to 5 lines of text, vocabulary is sophisticated in this early reader, including terms like candidates, election, nominate, and opponent, making this a slightly higher-level reader. Early show more elementary students will enjoy learning to make sense of elections with familiar Clifford and his friends. show less

Summary: this is the story of spider man. It mentions how at first he used his powers to have fun, then remembers what uncle Ben said, "with great power comes great responsibility". It's time for him to do something good for the people. He captures bad guys robbing a grocery store, robbers at a jewelry store, and bullies pushing people around. He's not one to take credit but occasionally he leaves a note to take credit. Knowing he helped someone was all the reward he needed, and when someone show more needs him you can be sure he'll be there!

Personal: I loved spider man books since I was a kid, and now that I'm older I wish a lot of the ones I had read had better pictures like this one. Mine were always hand me downs, but overall the story is essentially the same.

Extension: this could be a fun activity to have the kids dress up as superheroes and have them pretend to be saving the day by putting away their things where they belong, or helping the teacher clean around the room. show less