By Terri Schlichenmeyer

So, who will you vote for?

That’s easy: nobody yet, because you’re still a kid — but you have your opinions. Even so, how much do you know about this important grown-up job? Learn more by reading these three great books on voting…

It was a cold and rainy early November day when Mama said they had to go out. They had a job to do “that, by definition, no one can do for us…” In “Show Up and Vote” by Ani Di Franco, illustrations by Rachelle Baker (Penguin Workshop), the job is done in a big, official building that’s staffed by friendly people. Mama knew a lot of folks there because a lot of people come to vote, and “no matter the weather we do this together…”

Step by step, this book takes little readers from beginning to end of the voting process, showing them how important the “job” is and the many people involved. Adults will love the pride that oozes from these words; kids ages three to five will love the artwork.

Once was a time when the right to vote was shaky, at best. If your child needs to know that history, then “The Day Madear Voted” by Wade Hudson, illustrated by Don Tate (Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin) is the book to find.

It’s 1969, and Charlie and Ralph’s Madear has been looking forward to this day for most of her life. Up until then, Black people had been turned away from the voting booth, but on this day, the boys’ mom dresses up and heads out, taking them along. This is important!

It was “just like being at church” because people were dressed nicely, and they were very excited! Most of them never thought they’d see the day they’d be allowed to vote. When it was over, Madear came out of the booth with the biggest smile on her face! Ralph and Charlie asked her what it felt like, and her words peek into the future.

This look at a chapter in American history is perfect for kids who are trying to grasp the realities and processes of voting, and the act’s importance. Your five-to-seven-year-old will love it.

Here’s another story of a big milestone: “Leo’s First Vote!” by Christina Soontornvat, illustrated by Isabel Roxas (Knopf).

Leo’s dad just became an American citizen and this fall, he’ll be able to cast a vote for the President! Leo knows how great this is, and he’s very excited – but there are a lot of things he doesn’t understand. His teacher holds a mock election, which helps. Leo’s father helps, too, as he tries to learn all about the issues that are important. Leo listens as the adults debate politics and oops! his dad almost didn’t get registered, which is essential.

For parents of kids ages 5-to-7 who want to understand the process, so is this book.

If these aren’t enough to satisfy your young reader, check with your librarian or bookseller for more. In this election year, these books should get your vote!

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By Terri Schlichenmeyer

You give, and you give, and you give.

No problem. If you can be of service to your community, then that’s what you’ll do. You’ll volunteer where you’re needed. You’ll offer up your time to organize events and gather other helpers. You’ve dedicated your life to public service because, as in the new biography, “John Lewis: A Life” by David Greenberg, you’ve got it to give.

Born into a large but poor family in 1940, John Lewis became a widely respected U.S. Congressman who represented Georgia and fought to advance civil rights legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 through 2020.

Lewis grew up dodging chores in his father’s fields. Instead, he spent most of his time reading anything he could get his hands on. Lewis’s extended family – numbering in the hundreds – never minded much. They knew young John as someone who had big plans for getting off the farm and making something of himself.

Though he was already a victim of Jim Crow laws, and racism kept him from the books and education he craved, Greenberg says that “John’s teenage years coincided with the emerging civil rights movement,” and that became Lewis’s focus. He avidly followed the radio broadcasts of Martin Luther King, Jr., who became a beacon for him.

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When it was time to choose a college, Lewis attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, but he “began… to ‘drift away’” from the church because it frowned on his interest in the NAACP. He chose another church and eventually made a name for himself there as a gentle, level thinker and a leader.

By 1960, Lewis had become more active in the effort for equality. In 1961, he met King, who “had a high opinion of Lewis.”

King, in fact, offered Lewis a job but Lewis “felt committed to SNCC,” and turned the great man down.

Still, Lewis kept in contact with King after he went to work with Robert Kennedy in 1968. He was organizing on behalf of Kennedy in Indianapolis when Dr. King was assassinated; he was in New York when Kennedy was shot.

It’s almost impossible in a small article like this to explain the breadth and depth of John Lewis’s days, or of this book. There’s so much to learn, so many anecdotes to explain his work and his life. Since distilling what author David Greenberg offers won’t do justice to either subject or saga, just know that “John Lewis” is about as comprehensive as it gets.

Using archives and other, newer sources, Greenberg dives into Lewis as a whole, taking us back even before he was born. Readers who’ve spent considerable time studying the politician will be pleasantly surprised to find new information here; those who are familiar with Lewis’s Civil Rights work or his politics will devour the until-now unfamiliar parts, making each page a pleasantly dramatic new discovery, like a treasure hunt with an old friend.

Be aware that Greenberg peoples this account of Lewis’s life and his career abundantly, which can be overwhelming unless you devote your time well. “John Lewis” is a book for students, historians, biography-lovers, political fans, and activists.

Find it for yourself. Consider it for gift-giving.

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By Terri Schlichenmeyer

c.2024, Amistad

$28.00

437 pages

You’re lucky you didn’t hit your head!

The damage you did to yourself was bad enough. You didn’t need a head wound to lay you low, too. You haven’t skinned your knees like that since you were ten years old. Your elbow still hurts from that tumble. But read the new book, “The Fallen Fruit” by Shawntelle Madison and be grateful: you’re still in the here and now.

She should’ve just put a “For Sale” sign on it and sold the place, like she was told.

Cecily Bridge-Davis was warned by the locals that the portion of the old Bridge farm she’d inherited was “godforsaken,” but she had to see it. Maybe it would help her understand her father, who’d up and died when Cecily was just a baby. If she could find anything about him, the trip wouldn’t be wasted.

The property was overgrown, rundown, and there was a tumbledown cabin on it that she couldn’t resist. Inside the cabin, Cecily found a Bible, and an X-marked map.

Millie Bridge prayed that she’d be the one to fall.

It was 1920, and her brother, Isaiah, was meant for better things. She’d be able to handle a trip back in time better than he, but it was a fifty-fifty chance. Their father was a Bridge man, and the family curse that’d been around for hundreds of years would send one of his children to another time in the past, which is why the offspring of every Bridge man carried freedom papers with them.

Since one never knew if, where, or when they might fall, one could never be too careful.

Bridge-Davis looked over the Bible and followed the map to a hole in a tree stump, where she found an old satchel and more questions. Was she actually supposed to believe that, as an only child, she might disappear one day, only to reappear in another time?

How could that happen? Moreover, how could she tell her husband and children?

Autumn seems to be the right time for a spine-tingling, twisty-scary novel, doesn’t it? And “The Fallen Fruit” is just about the right book.

If you mixed together the movie Groundhog Day and Octavia Butler’s “Kindred,” you might have something close to what’s inside this novel. The difference is that author Shawntelle Madison adds a few more levels and a lot more characters to time-travel, meanwhile keeping readers guessing as to where this curse began.

Sometimes, that makes this novel scrape against your imagination until it’s raw. Other times, it feels oddly like an adventure story or a survival-type tale, a test of resourcefulness that you can place yourself inside. And then there are shades of romance, to keep you rapt.

If you’re someone who tends to overthink novels, you may not like this one; it leaves a lot of questions that don’t get answered. But if you’re up for a thrill-ride of a novel, “The Fallen Fruit” is a gem. A speculative fiction fan will go head over heels for it.

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