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Thimmesh, Catherine Madam President; illus. by Douglas B. Jones.
Houghton, 2004 80p
ISBN 0-618-39666-7 $17.00
Gr. 4-8
It’s November and it’s time to elect the president of the United
States. Once again voters, regardless of party affiliation, will go to the polls
and select candidates in impeccably tailored business suits and conservative,
camera-friendly neckties. Again, there’s not a kick pleat, a diamond tennis
bracelet, or even a pair of comfortable pumps in the running. Thimmesh challenges
the seeming inevitability of all this in a sassily organized and argued rallying
cry for girls-soon-to-be-women to stake a claim for the Executive Office.
In the opening sequence a pigtailed tweenager announces she intends to become
president. Peers and adults suggest more easily attainable goals, citing examples
of women who flexed considerable political muscle outside the Oval Office. She
could, for instance, marry a president: Edith Wilson appears to have called
the shots during her husband’s period of disability. Or she could vote
for the president: Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked long and hard to secure that
right for women, despite never enjoying it herself. She could get into Congress:
Nancy Pelosi sets House Democratic party agenda. Why not land a presidential
appointment? You can’t deny Madeleine Albright’s clout. How about
settling for vice-president? Geraldine Ferraro almost made it. If all else fails,
move to another country: an entire generation of Iceland’s children “thought
the president of a country was always a woman.” Sorry, but that’s
just not good enough. The Constitution stipulates two criteria for the presidency
and neither one is gender, so our girl is bound for the White House with pigtails
flying.
If you’re looking for an unabashed praisefest, this isn’t it. Thimmesh
selects female politicos who fare no better or worse than their male counterparts—Jeannette
Rankin cripples her political career with her pacifist vote against entry into
World War I, and the Mondale/Ferraro ticket goes up in flames—and she blazes
through the thumbnail entries with a recap of each subject’s notable “first”
and a pithy quotation in blue font—so many stepping stones paving women’s
path to the White House. Indeed, one occasionally wishes she would slow down
long enough to nuance a broad statement (the WPA “is generally credited
with the country’s economic recovery from the Great Depression”) or
to substantiate an eyebrow-raising claim (Edith Wilson’s assertion that
she did not make decisions for her husband has been disproved by “recent
evidence” from his medical records). However, she delights in ironic tidbits
and delivers them with a dash of venom. Susan B. Anthony rises in historic stature
from a three-cent stamp, to a fifty-cent stamp, all the way to a silver dollar.
The ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment turns on a letter from Mom to her
Tennessee representative son. Senate chambers are notably tardy in adding “Wo-”
to the Men’s Room doors.
Jones is adept at interweaving framing scenes that separate “chapters”
with focus pieces that advance Thimmesh’s argument. Fictional characters,
with their freckles, ruddy cheeks, and slouchy socks, could sit for Norman Rockwell,
but although a palette muted in gray tones suggests historical pedigree, the
crisp angularity of the figures and their startled, patronizing, or contentious
expressions are grounded in the present moment. Caricatures of the featured
women seize the witty metaphor: Nancy Pelosi drags her chair to the presidential
table; a broom-wielding Frances Perkins makes sweeping changes in labor policy;
Margaret Thatcher is clad in armor.
Thimmesh’s messages are clear: women have the political wherewithal to
hold executive office, and the U.S. is looking mighty shabby in the equal opportunity
department: “[W]hile the closest the United States has come to electing
a woman to the highest office was to have Geraldine Ferraro a vice presidential
candidate two decades ago, at least twenty-eight other nations . . . have elected
female heads of state.” Come on, gals, the door’s been kicked wide
open. Who wants to be first to step on through?
Elizabeth Bush, Reviewer
Cover illustration by Douglas B. Jones from Madam President ©2004.
Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.
This page was last updated on November 1, 2004.