A Look at the Books

The Kid Who Ran for President
Paperback: 156 pages
Publisher: Scholastic; reissue edition (October 1996)

Want to know what it's like to run for President? Dan Gutman gives his readers a taste with his hilarious book, The Kid Who Ran for President.

The book is all about 12-year-old Judson Moon who sets out to become President of the United States. His friend serves as his campaign manager and his former babysitter is his running mate.

"Before the 1996 presidential election, there was quite a bit of debate about whether Bob Dole might be too old to be President," said author Dan Gutman when asked where he got the idea for the book. "That got me thinking—what would be too YOUNG to be President? And that's what gave me the idea for this novel about a 12-year-old boy who runs for President. This was the first time I tried to write something funny. It is my most successful book."

The Kid Who Became President
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Apple; (November 1999)

Gutman came up with a sequel to his President book in 1999. Titled The Kid Who Became President, the story follows Judson Moon's first year in office. Now 13 years old, he's dodging assassination attempts and facing off with a crazed South American dictator! Sometimes, Judson wishes he was just a regular kid back in Madison, Wisconsin.

Gutman didn't start out writing humor. For 15 years he wrote nonfiction books. Then he had children and began spending time in classrooms. His fiction writing career began!

"Kids often tell me that my books make them laugh," Gutman said. "This is funny to me, because writing humor was what I wanted to do when I got started back in 1978! It just took me a while to figure out the best way to do it."