This presidential election year, we decided to do an interactive display where kids could vote for their favorite Pete the Cat book. This will go for the month of October, with the winning book being announced in early November.

We had this old voting booth laying around, leftover from a similar display 8 years ago during the 2008 election season, so we put it back together and made a new display to go around it. We settled on Pete not only because “Pete for President” has a nice ring to it, but also because we own the Pete costume, and we may do a few “campaign stops” where Pete comes and meets kids after preschool or family storytimes in October. I made some simple ballots for kids and parents to fill out and put out a ballot box. I made a couple of posters and some letters for the wall. We will keep a few Pete books near the ballot box to encourage kids to “know the candidates” before making their choice.

You would not have to have a voting booth to replicate this interactive display, just a stack of scrap paper to write your favorite book on and a ballot box (that’s the fun part after all, “casting” your ballot). Have fun encouraging reading this fall!