Young Reading: North Carolina prepared for election?

The candidates are circling around North Carolina, desperately seeking your vote and mine. Whom will you choose? Do your children share your viewpoints? Books make good touchstones to open conversations about issues, philosophies and other topics that make our country so diverse and unique.

CAMPAIGNING FOR PRESIDENT. Jordan M. Wright. Smithsonian/HarperCollins. All ages. 292 pages. $35.

This coffee-table book explores two centuries of election memorabilia. It is not limited to adults or to children, even if the author did begin his vast collection at age 10. Instead, Campaigning for President speaks to the masses, to every age that cares about the future by looking at the past. Over 300 photographs of election-related artifacts fill the oversize pages as captions and texts explain the pictorial timeline. Divided into blocks of history, the book shows our country's greatest (and most ignoble) moments captured in campaign buttons ("We Don't Want Eleanor Either"), banners ("One Country -- One Constitution -- One Destiny -- Buchanan & Breckenridge -- 1857), needlepoint images of candidates, mechanical nose-thumbers like those of Garfield and Hancock that include devil's tails springing up and oddities like Barbara and George Bush slippers.

The artifacts are colorful and often disrespectful, demonstrating that election mudslinging has deep roots. Some of the paraphernalia is racist and offensive. Some pieces reek of high-brow political humor while others are clichéd snapshots of the era they represent. The entire book mesmerizes even those with little interest in election history, if only because of the breadth of artifacts. Young readers will be interested to learn that even old codgers inspired dire insults; adults will enjoy looking up the elections of their youth. The author, who has kept his collection private until this book, is working to open the Museum of Democracy with the artifacts.

VOTE! By Eileen Cristelow. Clarion. Ages 7-11. 47 pages. $4.99.

First published four years ago and reissued for the 2008 elections, this tiny but mighty paperback combines a graphic, comic-strip style with clear-cut text to encourage young readers to become voters. It covers the history of voting, how to register, how to volunteer for campaigns and how to choose the candidate who best reflects a voter's values. It includes a glossary of voting vocabulary, a timeline and Web sites to investigate along with some neat activities. An inexpensive addition to any election library.

GIVE ME LIBERTY. By L.M. Elliott. HarperCollins. Ages 9 and up. 384 pages. $6.99.

Every social-studies teacher should add this recently released paperback to his or her reading list. In 1775, 13-year-old Nathaniel Dunn merely exists in his difficult life as an indentured servant until introduced to a new way of thinking about life and liberty. A few facts about North Carolina creep into the book, which takes place in Colonial Virginia. Despite the length, this book is easy to read, with engaging characters, vivid details and action-packed scenes that transport the reader to our country's first days and dilemmas about liberty that will spark conversations.

FIRST BOY. By Gary Schmidt. Holtzbrinck. Ages 12 and up. 224 pages. $6.95.

Ooooooh! I loved the premise behind this fast-paced political drama. Poor Cooper Jewett ... raised on a New Hampshire farm by an elderly couple, he never knew his "real" parents. When both of his grandparents pass away, suddenly Cooper has more problems than figuring out how to farm and go to school. Bad, big men break into his home. Other big men arrange meetings with high-level people. Could his real parents be the ones running the country? Suspicion and intrigue dominate this well-written book, which stays believable with snappy dialogue without diminishing Cooper's loneliness, grief and bewilderment.

READY OR NOT. By Meg Cabot. Ages 14 and up. 310 pages. $7.99.

If you are a Meg Cabot fan (she wrote The Princess Diaries, to name one series in her nearly 50 books), then you know that her writing is quick-witted, fun to read and all about girl empowerment. Ready or Not follows Samantha Madison after her debut in Cabot's novel All-American Girl. In the first book, Sam saved the president of the United States from a would-be assassin. Now a paparazzi-stalked teen phenom, Sam just wants to live a normal life with her dreamy boyfriend David, who happens to be the president's son. Despite Sam's naïve, almost bumbling way of going through life, she is considering Doing It with David. Teen-age premarital sex completely conflicts with the president's plan to reignite family togetherness, a plan that he has asked Sam to speak on at a televised-live MTV event.

Sam, in her usual ungainly way, publicly announces that: Wait a minute! She has had sex. Only she hasn't. She has just been consumed with considering it. What she believes in is free choice. Interesting and entertaining, protective parents should beware while parents who embrace open discussions will appreciate the way the intimacy topic is handled amidst a political debate.

Coming this summer:

DECLARE YOURSELF: Speak. Connect. Act. Vote. More Than 50 Celebrated Americans Tell You Why. HarperCollins. Ages 14 and up. 352 pages. $16.99.

This collection of 50 short inspirational essays by famous authors, celebrities and athletes is meant to rouse young people to vote. Many of the contributors are young enough to be voting for the first time in a presidential election, while others are venerable influences such as Winston-Salem's own Maya Angelou.

■ Monica Young can be reached at cyoung9@triad.rr.com.