As parents, we may think that some subjects are too complex or complicated to teach to very young children. Politics may be one of those daunting topics better left to middle and high school students.

Not so, says Tracy Biggers, manager of the children's department at the Library Center and mother of a preschooler. "It's never too early to instill the lessons of democracy, the responsibility of citizenship and the importance of voting in our kids."

And, not surprising for a library employee, Biggers believes books can help parents talk about these topics with their young ones. For starters, she recommends Eileen Christelow's picture book for youngsters, "Vote."

In her delightful comic book illustration style and witty prose, the author uses a town's mayoral election as a model to explain the entire electoral process—from campaigning to Election Day. She turns the story of a small town election into an exciting narrative and a great teaching tool.

Now that we have voting out of the way—let's reach even higher. "D is for Democracy: A Citizen's Alphabet" by Elissa Grodin and illustrated by Victor Juhasz tackles America's big idea. In this picture book, the author takes you and your kids on an A to Z rhyming romp through "our government's structure from its earliest beginning to definitions of basic components and concepts (including immigration and taxation)." Really.

Here are other children's books on politics:

• "Madam President: The Extraordinary, True (and Evolving) Story of Women in Politics," by Catherine Thimmesh
  
• "America Votes: How Our President Is Elected," by Linda Granfield
  
• "If I Ran for President," by Catherine Stier

If you really want to immerse your child in this year's election, there are picture books on the two presidential candidates on the shelves:"My Dad, John McCain" by Meghan McCain and "Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope" by Nikki Grimes.