MG Review: The Ellie McDodle Diaries: Ellie For President by Ruth McNally Barshaw

Ellie likes to Doodle in her sketch journal, she is such a wonderful doodler that her friends tell her that she should put her art on a blog.  They also start to make a a school magazine, that is until Ellie's art work of Principal Ping leaves them working for the school newspaper with a supervising teacher.   Being on the newspaper does have its advantages, especially when Ellie gets the scoop about class elections.  But now  that her friends are pushing her to run, does she have what it takes?



Ellie For President includes information about running for class elections, what it means to be a good candidate, fears about public speaking and how it's important to listen to your conscience.  Ellie has many flaws and is conflicted about running for office. She would rather spend her time on the school newspaper, but she also doesn't want to let her friends down.   She also struggles because the boy that she is crushing on is running for the election too.  How she resolves all of these seems to work.  The book is written in the form of a diary and given Ellie's passion for art,  there are many illustrations.  Barshaw includes step by step instructions to draw a bird or rabbit, how to make an origami butterfly, a flip book, and a  tri-fold butterfly note.  The Ellie McDoodle Diaries would appeal to eight to twelve year old MG readers that enjoy comic/diary style books.