This was a great book! I really enjoyed the character's journey and the way the solved their problems. I can't wait to read more from this author!

“The Campaign” is an entertaining middle-grade novel of elections, politics, and rivalry, and it was a fun book to read.

This book is the first middle-grade novel I have seen surrounding political campaigns and focusing on elections. I think the author did a great job of implementing it in a middle-grade setting. Also I enjoyed the author’s writing style and included facts about US Presidents like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama. I thought it was a very creative way of getting middle-graders interested in politics by learning fun facts about these significant icons.

Similarly, Amanda is also fun in the lead, and I loved her enthusiasm and confidence for the position. It was also fun to see all the various campaign ideas they came up with within the story, like vegas themed party to boost money. Moreover, I liked the angle the author created to make Amanda and Meghan rivals. It is a topic that I feel a reader of any age could relate to, especially when that friend becomes your rival for something you want to win. It was interesting to see how far they took the rivalry. Even Ben Ball was hilarious, and I liked how Amanda’s friendship with him grows throughout the story. However, I did feel that the story rushed towards the end. The way the author resolved the situation felt rushed. But apart from that, this book was lovely.

Overall, “The Campaign” is worth picking up if you would like a book about the US Presidents and see all the drama that happens at school elections.

Amanda and Meghan have been best friends forever! So that makes them perfect running mates for the 7th-grade government. When Amanda asks Meghan to be her vice president, she gets a surprise when Meghan says she's actually running against her.

I didn't really enjoy this book. I had a hard time getting through it. I felt so bad for Amanda and didn't think she deserved any of what happened to her. I felt the end was unsatisfying. The reconciliation was way too easy. I was also disappointed in the lack of diversity in this book. Also, there was almost no discussion on what the presidents they discussed did wrong. The history of some of the presidents definitely seemed very white-washed. Overall, this book was decent but I expected more.

I got this book for my 10 year old daughter who isn't a big reader and actually really prefers graphic novels when she does read. But she devoured this book. She enjoyed it so much she even asked me if there was going to be another book!

While I didn't read it myself I have to say to hear my daughter rave about this book it must be good!

This was a super cute middle grades novel. I think the key things I think about when reviewing middle grade novel for me are: 1) do I like it?, 2) would kids like it? and 3) would I read it out aloud? I would say this gets: 1) yes, 2) yes, and 3) yes. It’s a quick read and it would perfect to read around a presidential election.

With parents in politics, Amanda has always longed to run for class president. As any middle schooler would believe, her best friend is the ideal vice president. That is, until she finds out that Meghan has political aspirations of her own.

Well-written and timely, The Campaign was a joy to read and left me wanting more.

Highly recommended for young readers, including those young at heart, how desire to delve into the complexities of social and political justice.

Apparently everyone publishes election-related books during election years and I can't stop reading them! This middle grade novel is about an election for seventh grade class president, but it is also about friendship and learning tough life lessons. The growth of the characters was fun to watch throughout the book and I loved the ending. Really cute read!

We loved this book. It was great to read with my daughter and highly recommend it to other looking for something to share with their kids. We were so happy to read about female main characters, as my daughter doesn’t really want to read about boys, lol.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Amanda Adams is running for president of her seventh-grade class and is planning to ask her best friend Meghan to be vice president! This book brought me instantly into the political spotlight as I traveled along with Amanda in her quest to win her class election. I gained insights into past presidents of the United States as well as life in the political arena. I joined Amanda's enthusiasm as she prepared for her campaign and by the end of the first chapter of the book I had her pegged as the winner. Of course, things don't always turn out as planned so I was caught up in the unexpected chain of events from Amanda's vice president disappointment to her discovery of a new friend. In this election year, this book is especially timely. I also found it to be an incredibly realistic picture of life in middle school including struggles with friends, popularity issues, and self-discovery. As an educator, I believe this book would be a good read for kids who are running campaigns at their own schools or even for kids to read to get ready for elections in their state/city/country. I was on the edge of my political podium as I blew through the pages wanting to know what would happen next. Was it a simple, clean, peaceful election? Did Amanda win? You will have to join the campaign and read this book to find out. All I can say is that I enjoyed reading this book, so for me, that's a WIN!

I received an electronic ARC from Perseus Books, Running Press through NetGalley.
Politics and middle school drama aren't a perfect blend, especially when best friends both run for class president. Friedman takes readers through the joys and nastiness of seventh grade that echoes at all levels of political campaigns.
Amanda and Meghan each learn how to communicate and value friendship after pulling nasty tricks on each other from the start of the campaign. Amanda overcomes her self-focus and Meghan learns to speak up and not put popularity about friendship.
Plenty of humor to balance the more serious side of this story.

Amanda wants to run for class president and she knows the perfect VP- her best friend Meghan. However things get dirty when Meghan announces that she is running against Amanda for president. This book deals with multiple issues surrounding middle school kids, and also serves as a lesson on politics. There is even a little history thrown into the mix in a cool way. The campaign is meant for a younger audience, but i still loved it (and I'm in my early 30s). The release date is perfect timing coming out shortly before the 2020 election.

I adored this so much from the beginning until the end! This is not the regular just funny or interesting grsphic novel, it's about more than that and I encourage all of you to read it!!!

This book felt like it wasn't sure where to go and so took the safest, most predictable path from start to finish. It felt like a heavy-handed lesson on the Mount Rushmore presidents, but the face it offered was just as cold and stony as that edifice to presidents who were certainly not the best examples of humanity we could have chiseled into a rock face.

Amanda Adams (yes, that's her name) decides that she wants to run for class president, all without discussing it with her best friend who she expects to run as her VP; then she irrationally gets miffed when she discovers that her best friend is also running for the same office. Once again the book description was apparently written by someone who seems to have little clue what's going on in the book and is just trying to make it sound sensational, which it really isn't. We're told that "Politics is in her DNA" but she clearly does not have any such DNA, and she makes one gaff after another in a poorly-conceived campaign despite having grown up with a Congress person as a mom and a political strategist as a dad. Nor do we ever get any sense that Amanda has a real clue what she's doing. Quite the opposite.

All of this really undermines her credentials and make me wonder why she was running at all. She seemed to have no motivation or plan. The book might have been more engaging had Amanda been a rebel who was, for example, determinedly resisting her parents' efforts to push her into running for this office, but finds herself motivated to do it anyway because of some cause which stirs her. This book wasn't written for me, but it didn't seem like it would appeal very much even to its target audience as it stands. It was obvious from the start which running mate Amanda would end up with, but the real problem with it was that she'd had this idea of running for president for some time but had given zero thought to lining-up her running mate. And this is the girl who has politics in her DNA? Na-uh! Not even close.

We got an Amanda who ran into trouble getting the support of her soccer team because they all irrationally felt that she'd spend all her time campaigning and neglect soccer games and practice, but we're given no reason why they would think that of her. Didn't they know her better than that? It's no spoiler to reveal that her team loses an important game, because it's that kind of a color-by-numbers novel.

What's shameful is the approach to the game, treating it like it was a major 'take no prisoners and slaughter the enemy' battle in an ongoing war rather than with any kind of sportsmanship. I found these rallying cries offensive. Clearly they were taking their cue from the USWNT in the last soccer World Cup when, in their first game, they were lording it over a clearly inferior team instead of being professional about their scoring bonanza. Amanda is given the baseless perspective of a goalkeeper who thinks she and only she is entirely and solely responsible for keeping the ball out of the goal. I guess her team has no players on defense, with every other member of the team is playing on the forward line. It was entirely unrealistic and unbelievable.

Now you can argue that this girl is in seventh grade and may well think like she does because of that, but Amanda is supposed to be the hero of the story with politics in her DNA, and who takes life lessons from the Mount Rushmore community. The problem is that she never seems to learn anything from these mini-bios of the presidents that she bores the reader with, and the story becomes nothing more than jingoism, repeating the tedious and clichéd mythology without actually examining it at all.

Rather than break new ground and find presidents who led exemplary lives which would merit examination and emulation, the author took the road most trampled and trotted out Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and the Roosevelts. The book was just starting in on the womanizing John Kennedy when I quit.

Why take this trite and easy route? Why not dig a little and find presidents who were not land cheats, as Washington was; not slave abusers, as Jefferson was; not overseeing one of the biggest land-grabs from the Navajos and Mescalero Apaches in New Mexico as Lincoln did; not supporting waterboarding as Teddy Roosevelt did, or dishonorably discharging African American men of the 25th infantry Battalion (the Buffalo Soldiers) on unfounded charges as he did; and finally, not sanctioning the unjust imprisonment of Japanese Americans in World War Two as Franklin Roosevelt did.

There have been 45 presidents in the US, and while the present one is a dangerous, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and scientifically ignorant clown, not all of them have been like that. Some - like Clinton and Kennedy - have been reprehensible womanizers, but others, like Obama, have been a beacon. Could the author not have found some like that? Apparently not.

I can't commend a book like this at all.

When two best friends -since first grade- competed against each other for 7th grade president, it became a recipe for disaster. There were power plays and too many negative incidents that took place such as: the friendship broke down, once trusted secrets were revealed, an Instagram war of words occurred, and rules of civility were ignored. When the campaign turned nasty, a much needed intervention took place, and luckily for the two former best friends, hope and civility were restored, not only for the campaign, but also their friendship.

The Campaign was an interesting look at the dirty side of politics on a small scale level and something that this age group can relate to. I liked how the author used past presidents to educate, guide, and inspire Amanda to do the right thing as a candidate and for the seventh grade class in general. In the end, honestly and integrity were the winners.

This was a well written read that was also educational, informative, and entertaining. It will be an asset to classroom libraries.

An ARC was given for an honest review.