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Morning News

Illustrator David Small Discusses 'So You Want To Be President'

Aired January 17, 2001 - 9:51 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Illustrator David Small took home the Randolph Caldecott medal for most distinguished picture book this week.

The book, "So You Want To Be President," appeals to both children and adults.

Small said it gave him a chance to combine his two careers: political cartoonist and children's illustrator.

David Small joins us now from New York. He's going to tell us about this unusual endeavor, which led to his big award.

First of all, David, congratulations. That's a heck of an achievement.

DAVID SMALL, AUTHOR, "SO YOU WANT TO BE PRESIDENT": Thank you very much.

HARRIS: Did you know that you had an award winner when you first started out on this project?

SMALL: No, I had no idea, really.

HARRIS: So how...

SMALL: It didn't seem like the book that would win an award.

HARRIS: Yes? So how did you get hooked up with this project in the first place, then?

SMALL: A very good editor named Patricia Gouch (ph) called me with this manuscript that was about the presidents, and I thought it would be a interesting way to combine my career in children's -- for the work I've done in almost 30 books for children and the work that I've done for magazines like "The New Yorker" and newspapers like the "Times" and the "Washington Post."

HARRIS: Well, look, this is where the -- these are some of the pictures that we've come up from the magazine, that -- talk to us about when you came up with here.

SMALL: I am sorry. Which one are you talking about here? HARRIS: Now, can you -- do you have a monitor there? Can you see the picture we have on the screen right there?

SMALL: Yes.

HARRIS: Now, tell us about the -- how you came up with the idea for this one. And what is this here?

SMALL: Oh, that was an easy one. That was -- that -- that's -- that's a page that talks about the presidents and their names. This is a -- this is a spread about, you know, if your name is John, you've got a good chance of being president because there were so many Johns who became president; or James or -- and these are presidents who were born in log cabins. So if you were born in a log cabin, you've got a good chance of being president.

HARRIS: And if your name was John and you were born in a log cabin, it's a shoo-in...

SMALL: Yes.

HARRIS: ... right?

SMALL: Yes, yes, it is a shoo-in, right.

HARRIS: OK.

SMALL: These are presidential personalities, such as Teddy Roosevelt who was quite boyish. They said he was -- they said you must always remember that Roosevelt was around the age of six if you were dealing with him.

HARRIS: And this one, you said that this is one of your favorites here.

SMALL: This is the presidential beauty contest. The text informs us that looks don't matter, or shouldn't matter, if you want to become president.

Abraham Lincoln, whom you can see on the left, for example, was an ugly man, but one of our best presidents.

And Warren Harding, who's strolling down the runway on the right, as you can see, was one of our worst, but a very handsome fellow.

HARRIS: It's also accompanied by some quotes. I think (ph) in that one picture there is a quote from Harding himself saying, "I am not fit for this office. I never should have been here."

SMALL: Yes, that's right, that's right. And this is...

HARRIS: What about this one?

SMALL: This is the presidential family tree. If your name is Bush, for example, your dad is already in the tree and can give you a leg-up. He's not in this picture, though. We're going to have to do a revision.

This would be presidential -- former jobs that presidents have held. There's Mr. Reagan, the actor, getting fit out (INAUDIBLE) men's tailor.

HARRIS: I am sorry about that. David, we apologize; we lost your microphone for just a second (ph) .

SMALL: I'm sorry.

HARRIS: Once again, now, explain what the -- what the tailor is doing here and who the tailor was.

SMALL: The tailor is Johnson...

HARRIS: There we go.

SMALL: ... Lyndon Johnson.

Yes, and the man getting fit for the suit is Mr. Reagan, of course.

HARRIS: I think we've got one more for you to take a look at here.

SMALL: All right.

This is the...

HARRIS: Now, what's that?

SMALL: ... this is the honesty spread. It says that if you want to be a president, it's a good thing to be honest and stay honest.

And this spread is interesting because it was originally done without the middle figure there, as Mr. Clinton. It was just Mr. Nixon down at the bottom in the shadows of -- down at the bottom of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

And I did this picture right at the height of the Lewinsky scandal, and didn't really know where to place -- I knew Mr. Clinton had to be in the picture, then, but I didn't know exactly where to place him.

HARRIS: Right.

SMALL: This is the final spread of the book, talking about the loneliness of the office and the isolation of it. And that would be Lincoln.

HARRIS: And then, when you -- when you have (ph) -- when you put together this, the whole idea was not necessarily to do like you do in your editorial cartoons that, I guess, to make fun of or find some sort of a caricature that -- to pick with each of these presidents. Basically, you're telling this story for kids to understand, correct?

SMALL: Well, it's a book that tries to humanize the presidency. And it's a book that try to -- it tells kids that they can be president. You know, it's a very old-fashioned American message in that way.

HARRIS: Well, you've shown them they can be winner if they follow in your footsteps, that's for sure.

David Small...

SMALL: Hey, I have to tell you this was written by Judith St. George.

HARRIS: I was just going to give...

SMALL: So, it's her text.

HARRIS: I'm glad you did that. I was going to get her name in there, Judith St. George.

Congratulations for finding, David Small. Good work. Nice going.

SMALL: Thank you very much.

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