“Election Day” Teaches Kids Why Voting Matters

Too many young people don’t vote, in fact, barely a quarter of them made it to the polls in the last midterm election. Voter apathy led Mary Jane McKittrick to help rectify it by writing Election Day, part of the Boomer and Halley series. The book’s main characters, Boomerang, an Australian Shepherd dog, and Halley’s Comet, a silver streak of a cat, help teach kids important values in an easy-to-understand, fun-filled way.

Studies show that discussions about civility need to start young and continue through high school. Election Day, part of an award-winning series, is a great tool to give parents a way to begin exploring the importance of the democratic process with kids as young as four years old. By putting Election Day on their book shelves, retailers can help parents open an important dialogue and frame questions that make the conversation and its implications stick in kids’ minds.

The statistics that worry McKittrick show that most midterm elections have traditionally drawn only 22 to 25 percent of voters aged 18 to 30. “Our power in the voting booth is the single most significant individual power we wield as citizens and it’s a right that many around the world don’t possess. We should teach our kids to value it and to use it wisely,” said McKittrick who is a former broadcast journalist and holds a dual Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts and Speech Communication.

Election Day, a soft cover book, is packed with illustrations that help tell the story and has won the coveted Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, as well as the Mom’s Choice Awards: Honoring Excellence. Parents, grandparents and teachers praise the Boomer and Halley series for the way it explains serious concepts in a way that children 4 to 8 years old can easily understand.

The book includes a unique, detachable bookmark designed to help guide adults and their young reader through discussions of the lessons highlighted in the book. The PAWS located throughout the book indicate places where readers might want to pause and ask the child a question about what the characters are learning from their experiences. The experience promotes PAWSitive behavior and opens the door for helpful chat.

McKittrick offers these suggestions for parents, to help get across what democracy is all about:

• Vote and when age-appropriate, take children with you when you do. If you vote with an absentee ballot, show your child the form and explain how important it is to be sure your vote is counted.
• Connect laws to kids’ lives. Government in action is all around, including road construction on the way to school, the opening or refurbishing of a playground or campaign signs during an election cycle.
• Talk issues, not politics. Politics can bore youngsters but issues, like whether the school year should be longer or why they take standardized tests at school, are good discussion topics because they relate to children’s lives and can be discussed easily. Ask questions like, “Do you think it’s fair that the rules are this way?” or, “If you could make the rules, what would you do?” It will get kids thinking and caring about democracy and their role in it.

Civic-minded Mary Jane McKittrick grew up in California with horses, cats and an Australian sheepdog named Boomer, the inspiration for the book’s dog. She now lives on a historic horse farm in North Carolina, surrounded by animals. “I think parents should be more conscientious about teaching the importance of voting from a young age, so that it is a right and an action that kids look forward to taking,” she says.

Get that democratic process going at www.boomerandhalley.com