Kid President Totally Rules!

by Jack Heath, Max Rambaldi (Illustrator)

Jaxxon has accidentally been elected to rule as the first ever KID PRESIDENT. He has big ideas: free ice-cream in every school, homework to be made illegal, and all national parks to become skate parks.

But not everyone is happy about the new changes. And they are willing to do just about anything to kick him out of office.
Can Jaxxon keep his presidency and show everyone he totally rules?

304 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2021

About the author

Jack Heath wrote his debut novel, The Lab, in secondary school and sent it to a publisher at age seventeen. He's now the award-winning author of forty novels for adults and children, including the international bestsellers Hangman, The Wife Swap and 300 Minutes of Danger. His books have been translated into ten languages, optioned for TV and adapted for film. He lives on Ngunnawal/Ngambri country in Canberra, Australia, with his wife, their children, several chickens, a few fish and a possum named Oreo.

Reviews

[Rebecca Fung · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wacky middle grade comedy that I'm sure will appeal to kids who wish they could be President some day - in a sort of Idiocracy-for-kids world. Jaxxon becomes President due to a spelling mistake. He's a kid, and not exactly the smartest kid around, but could he be dumber than the dumb adult President who misspelled his name and allowed him to be President in the first place?

Jaxxon has great ideas for fun things like free ice cream and skate parks everywhere, but then soon learns that being President isn't all about having fun and just doing whatever you want.

This is a "message" story and plenty of middle grade stories have a message. This one isn't subtle. There's plenty of wacky, silly (in a good way!) comedy for kids to like and maybe they would relate to Jaxxon better than I did but I felt that unlike some of Heath's other stories, the kid in this one (and even his smarter, more likable friend, Tiara) just weren't as sympathetic, interesting or even relatable enough to make as good a story as a book like "Stunt Kid Seriously Stacks It!" The story was more about gags than a character you really got into, and while Jaxxon does learn stuff I felt it more happened by accident rather than feeling the process of that development.

There were some good bits to laugh at but less heart than some of Heath's other good kid's books. But the fun was well-written and pacy and the illustrations very endearing so it was still a very likable book and I'm sure some kids would still enjoy it a lot.

[Laura Feldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool new series to read. Another challenging book for Mr 9 to work on. He has enjoyed both this and Stunt Kid. This one is my favourite out of those two.