MR. PRESIDENT GOES TO SCHOOL

The gophers-rights group demands rodent access to the Rose Garden. The VEEP has donated the ping-pong table to a bunch of Boy Scouts (the scoreboard on the wall hints at the reason for this). Bulrovia and Snortburg are on the brink of war. What’s a commander-in-chief to do? He dons Groucho glasses and a trenchcoat and walks “exactly seven and a half blocks... to a place where the world [is] a little simpler”—Mrs. Appletree’s kindergarten. Fortified by finger-painting, storytime, a snack and a nap and, of course, the hokey pokey, he is able to return to the affairs of state, bringing some of Mrs. Appletree’s wisdom with him. Sneed presents a gangly, big-nosed white president, allowing perspective and gentle caricature to bring out the humor in Walton’s premise. A funny, wholly non-didactic take on the all-I-needed-to-know-I-learned-in-kindergarten trope. (Picture book. 5-8)