Madame Speaker: Nancy Pelosi Calls the House to Order

Weatherford’s picture book biography of groundbreaking stateswoman Nancy Pelosi recounts how her upbringing and family life informed her career priorities. The succinct narrative highlights Pelosi’s childhood in a religious and political Italian American family (her mother wanted her to become a nun, “but I thought I might want to be a priest”) and her rise from California Democratic Party chair to Speaker of the U.S. House, becoming “the first woman to be second in line to the presidency.” Boxed quotations from Pelosi offer insight into her influences and motivations; one reveals how the busy mother of five “saw politics as an expansion of my role as a mom.” Hsu’s cartoon-style digital illustrations offer varying perspectives, depicting scenes ranging from a Catholic school classroom to the signing of the Affordable Care Act as seen from Pelosi’s vantage. A bibliography and timeline conclude this favorable portrait of a glass-ceiling breaker. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)