FIORELLO LA GUARDIA

At first glance the vibrating pinks and blues of the two-color illustrations may seem a shade too zappy and the tone of the whole is unabashedly adulatory, but Fiorello's earthiness is an honestly invigorating influence. The son of a cornet player in an army band, Fiorello got his first job at the age of fifteen and never stopped moving from that day on; the narrative matches his lively pace and incidents such as his unannounced visits to a welfare office and a police station are dramatically self-explanatory (though, surprisingly, the famous reading of the funny papers during New York's newspaper strike is not mentioned). It's no faint praise to predict that Fiorello is one politician who won't put young readers to sleep.