Declare Yourself

Reviewed by Candace Cunard for TeensReadToo.com

This book, directed at teens on the edge of the voting age, is brimming with essays by people who can't wait to tell you why you should vote. The "celebrated Americans" of the subtitle include everyone from athletes to movie stars to entertainment journalists, and for the most part, they all say the exact same thing: your vote really does count.

Some of the essays were better than others. The most enjoyable are those by authors who reveal something of their personal experience with voting and the political process. One contributor writes about the old lady he's seen working at polling places in his area for years; another writes about the vote her father cast for FDR that could have gotten him killed, since as a black man in the south he was practically forbidden from going to the polls.

My favorite essay in the entire book was Meg Cabot's defense of feminism, which she correctly defines as the desire for men and women to have equal rights, and which she points out has very little to do with wearing (or not wearing) bras, or shaving (or not shaving) one's legs.

For the most part, the contributors refrain from affiliating themselves with a specific political party, but a clever reader could easily decode their covert references to specific issues and make a good guess about where they stand. The contributors fall short when they begin to deliver platitudes, and at times the essays read like everything you've ever been told about why you should vote.

The main shortcoming of the book is hinted at by James Kotecki in his essay, "The Cynical Revolution." And that is: would someone who is actually apathetic about voting pick up and read this book? To this, I add a second question: if they did, would they be lucky enough to open up to one of the essays that's good enough to convince them to vote?

Overall, DECLARE YOURSELF is more likely to act as affirmation for those teens who've already made the decision to be voters. It does contain resources for people who think that voting means more than just casting a ballot on election day. The back of the book lists contact information for groups, organizations, political action committees, and others that readers may wish to contact. It also lists tips for getting involved in politics on the local level and offers a glossary of terms the aspiring politico needs to know.

It might not be the way to convince teens that voting is the cool thing to do, but it's reassuring to know that someone's making the effort to reach out to the age group with the lowest representation in the polls and get them to do something about it.… (altro)