WE THE KIDS

Serving an earnest purpose with characteristic zaniness, Catrow (Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon, 2001, etc.) twice interprets the Constitution’s first sentence. First, a simple repeat of the words is accompanied by an explanatory gloss on each ringing phrase; then a series of full-bleed, neon-colored scenes lets three exuberant children and a springer spaniel act out its principles while organizing a backyard campout. The two are sandwiched between a personal foreword, in which the cartoonist describes his first encounter with the Constitution—“I remember thinking: MAN, why couldn’t the guys who wrote this just use regular English?”—while assuring younger readers that its radical ideas are not beyond their comprehension and, for the Preamble’s final words, a cinematic close in which the view pans away from the children, sleeping safely under parental eyes, toward distant horizons. As well as being an engaging way of removing barriers to understanding raised by the Constitution’s stylized language, this makes a first-class discussion starter for many of the ideas and issues it addresses. (Picture book. 7-12)