Our Congress

by Christy Mihaly, Doruntina Beqiraj (Illustrator)

Overview

An unconventional tour of the US Capitol helps a girl understand how Congress works and why it's so important.

When her mom gets elected to the US House of Representatives, Alice can't help feeling disappointed. She wonders what's so important about Congress that it would make her mom want to move all the way to Washington, DC. But with the aid of some famous historical figures, friendly government workers, and a ghostly cat, Alice sets off on a once-in-a-lifetime guided tour of the Capitol that opens her eyes to the ways Congress has shaped our nation throughout history, and how it continues to impact life for every American today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807512401
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	09/05/2024
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Christy Mihaly wrote Free for You and Me: What Our First Amendment Means, and has written more than 25 other children’s books. Her 2020 educational civics series won Junior Library Guild gold standard designations. A former lawyer, Christy lives and writes in Vermont.

Doruntina Beqiraj is a children’s illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. She has a passion for creating warm and charming characters and enjoys experimenting with textures and patterns. Her art is inspired by the magic of everyday moments.

Editorial Reviews

07/15/2024

The child of a newly elected House representative tours Congress with guides corporeal and spectral in this content-heavy paneled primer. Accompanying their mother to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., brown-skinned Alice voices frustration over how much the parent’s role requires. As Mom attends an event, Alice sets off solo, meeting a snarky spectral feline along with the ghost of James Madison, who explain the legislative branch’s history and function. Wandering the halls, Alice and the cat cross paths with the ghost of Senator Blanche Bruce and a fully alive Senate page, congressional committee staffer, lobbyist, and Capitol Police officer, each of whom reveals more about governance and pivotal historical conflicts (the Civil War, the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack). Begiraj’s basic illustrations have a paper-doll quality, with most characters depicted head-on, leaving ample room for dense, textbook-like speech balloons. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. A glossary and additional info conclude. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Alice sets off solo, meeting a snarky spectral feline along with the ghost of James Madison, who explain the legislative branch’s history and function...each of whom reveals more about governance and pivotal historical conflicts (the Civil War, the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack).” —Publishers Weekly 

“...refreshingly frank overview.” —Kirkus 

From the Publisher

2024-08-03
A ghostly cat and other residents of the U.S. Capitol give a newly elected representative’s young daughter an introduction to Congress.

Left to her own devices while Mom takes care of official business, Alice finds a series of friendly tour guides—including the specters of a cat, James Madison, and Blanche Bruce, the first Black senator to serve a full term—who take her around the building and fill her in on the party and electoral systems, the jobs of each of the three branches as defined by the Constitution, and the legislative process. If Madison’s assertions that “we don’t put one person in charge of everything” and that only Congress makes laws “and even the president must follow them” will have ironic rings to readers up on current events (or, for that matter, U.S. history), such claims do at least indicate how the federal government is supposed to work. At times, though, the book offers a look at some harsher realities: A chart showing how bills become law includes some of the many ways a bill can die, Mihaly gives a nod toward the long struggle for equal voting rights for all, and the book provides a straightforward recap of the events of January 6, 2021. In the neatly drawn graphic panels, Alice (brown-skinned like her mother) encounters racially diverse groups of tourists, officials, and workers, including people who use wheelchairs.

A timely, basic, and, at least in spots, refreshingly frank overview. (glossary, facts about Congress, congressional firsts)(Informational picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews