Dear Mr. President

by Sophie Siers, Anne Villeneuve (Illustrator)

Overview

Sam has to share a room with his disruptive and all-around undesirable big brother, and he is NOT happy about it. One night, when Sam hears about the president’s plans to build a border wall, it inspires what Sam thinks is a perfectly reasonable solution to his own problem: he needs to build a wall, too.



Told as a series of letters addressed to the president, the story shows Sam working through his thoughts and feelings about his plan to build a dividing wall in his bedroom. He debates pros and cons, learns about other walls built through the ages, and slowly comes around to a new perspective as he begins to see that the best solutions involve communication, compromise, and negotiating ways to make things work.



With an undertone of subtle humor, this story is at once a simple tale about a common gripe of siblinghood and a modern fable sure to spark conversations about tolerance, learning to live with others, and the importance of recognizing other points of view.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771473910
Publisher:	Owlkids Books
Publication date:	09/17/2019
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

SOPHIE SIERS is a lifelong reader and children's book author who lives in Waimarama, New Zealand.



ANNE VILLENEUVE has worked as an author and illustrator for over 25 years, creating close to 40 books, several of which have won awards. She has also illustrated for magazines, newspapers, and advertisements, and teaches watercolor and drawing at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. She lives in Montreal with her family and tries to draw every day, even on vacation.

Editorial Reviews

06/10/2019

When Sam sees the U.S. president on TV announcing the need for a wall—the leader is never fully seen or named, although the wave of orange hair is a giveaway—he fires off a letter to POTUS declaring that he needs a wall, too: he’s forced to share a bedroom with his older brother, who “exactly fits your description of an undesirable person.” More letters follow in this one-way correspondence as the bedroom wall idea takes hold in Sam’s mind and the other, bigger wall takes over public conversation. A teacher assigns a research project on defensive walls throughout history (as the teacher notes, “some of them didn’t quite work to plan”). Sam’s initially dismissive parents (“I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a lot of negative feedback,” Sam writes) are inspired to facilitate some much-needed communication and negotiation between the siblings—which, their father points out, “are always preferable to separation.” With economic, wry prose and stylish, observant watercolor and ink cartooning, Siers (Arlo and the Ginkgo Tree) and Villeneuve (the Loula books) offer readers ripped-from-the-headlines proof that the political is indeed personal. Ages 5–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

10/18/2019

Gr 2–4-After hearing about the president's plans to build a wall to keep "undesirable" people out, young Sam decides that he needs a wall, too, and begins writing letters to the president about his grievances. Sam shares his room with his older brother, "who exactly fits your description of an undesirable person," and believes that a wall will solve his problems. When Sam's brother begins to consider his feelings, the tide turns and the siblings start communicating and treating each other with respect. Sam discovers that a big brother can be helpful after all and writes to the president that he will be dropping "the whole wall idea." Told entirely through impressionable young Sam's letters, the story conveys a strong message—that the president is abusing his position of power. The line and watercolor illustrations leave no doubt as to Sam's country and president, and the final, wordless image of one brother boosting the other over a wall to reach a kite speaks volumes. VERDICT A good lesson in using communication and compromise to solve problems and not being afraid to admit mistakes. Also, this is a fine example of letter writing—no rambling, misspelled tweets here!-Kelly Roth, Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, GA

School Library Journal

2019-06-16
A young boy weighs the pros and cons of building a wall in his bedroom.

In letters addressed "Dear Mr. President," Sam describes his grievances with his big brother, "who exactly fits your description of an undesirable person": He uses his cellphone at night "even though he isn't allowed," and "it keeps me awake." His classmates are also talking about the president's wall. "There didn't seem to be many kids who thought it was a good idea," but Sam whines that "They obviously don't know what it's like to share a room." Subdued line-and-wash paintings show Sam learning about the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China while his family tries to broker peace. Recurrent images of extraterrestrials indicate the unspoken context of undocumented immigrants. Dad says that "communication and negotiation are always preferable to separation" (implying, perhaps, that the concentration camps on the U.S.-Mexico border are a result of poor communication?), and the dispute is eventually settled when the big brother comforts Sam after a nightmare. While some children may see in Trump's fascist blatherings a solution to their own domestic problems, the kindly, bemused tone this text, a New Zealand import via Canada, takes toward a humanitarian crisis feels jarringly inappropriate.

Despite good intentions, this story only makes xenophobia seem palatable. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews

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