Review Detail
Kids Fiction
193
An important lesson for young citizens
Overall rating
4.0
Plot
4.0
Characters
4.0
Writing Style
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
4.0
It's 1969, and Charlie and Ralph's mother is very excited that she will get to vote for the first time since the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. Before, Black people were made to provide documentation they didn't have in order to be abel to vote, or to pay a toll tax or even guess the number of jellybeans in a jar! Now, all that is ended. Madear gets dressed up in her best dress and takes the boys to City Hall to vote. It's a bit of a tense time; it wasn't always easy for Black people to vote in some places in the US, but Madear is able to vote without incident. After that, she voted every year, and in 2008 was able to vote for Barack Obama, the first Black president of the US.
Good Points
Wade Hudson's fantastic memoir, Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South (2021) as well as his contemporary middl grade fiction book The Reckoning (2024), both explore Civil Rights, so it is great that he is bringing this topic to younger readers, especially since the illustrator, Don Tate, has done several books on the topic as well, like Pigskins and Paintbrushes.
The illustrations get the details of the 1960s correct, and Madear's outfit somehow made me think of the rebooted Wonder Years television show that portrays the experiences of a Black family in Montgomery, Alabama during this time period. There's something about the clothing and the house that particularly ring true. Don't forget the plaid pants on some of the voters!
An end note says that this is loosely based on one family's experience, and gives more information about the historical period.
As we approach another presidential election cycle, it's important to teach young future voters the importance of making their voice heard. Keep The Day Madear Voted in heavy rotation for nightly read alouds along with Todd's Stacey Abrams and the Fight to Vote, Winter and Evan's Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to make sure that children grow up and fulfill their civic duty. Add Rockcliff's Around America to Win the Right to Vote, if you want to also include Women's Suffrage before 1920; my grandmother was 27 before she could vote for the first time, so it is not a right that I ever take lightly!
The illustrations get the details of the 1960s correct, and Madear's outfit somehow made me think of the rebooted Wonder Years television show that portrays the experiences of a Black family in Montgomery, Alabama during this time period. There's something about the clothing and the house that particularly ring true. Don't forget the plaid pants on some of the voters!
An end note says that this is loosely based on one family's experience, and gives more information about the historical period.
As we approach another presidential election cycle, it's important to teach young future voters the importance of making their voice heard. Keep The Day Madear Voted in heavy rotation for nightly read alouds along with Todd's Stacey Abrams and the Fight to Vote, Winter and Evan's Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to make sure that children grow up and fulfill their civic duty. Add Rockcliff's Around America to Win the Right to Vote, if you want to also include Women's Suffrage before 1920; my grandmother was 27 before she could vote for the first time, so it is not a right that I ever take lightly!
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