Reviews

I feel like this tale of a selfish, egotistical and unqualified squid who wants to be president (and then supreme king of the universe) would have been more fun before the rise of Trump.

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3.0

Gr K-3 -- You might not expect a hot-pink squid to be a likely candidate for president, especially since this squid seems to possess very few qualifications for governance. Sure, he wears a tie, has a huge house, and does a lot of bossy talking, but even young readers - and certainly Squid’s undersea neighbors - recognize that these are not very good reasons to elect a person president. But when he puts all his effort (and all his legs) into doing a good deed for a stranger, he learns that “helping people... is very presidential.” As an added bonus for grownup readers, President Squid’s egotistical bombast can be read as a satirical take on real-life candidates with little political experience. Fun, cartoony illustrations by Sara Varon keep things light-hearted, especially Squid, whose misguided self-aggrandizement is mitigated by his goggle-eyed, enthusiastic demeanor. Great for an election year, or an undersea storytime, paired with Kevin Sherry’s I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean and This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen. —Paula Willey