Friedman, Mark. The Democratic Process.

Friedman, Mark.   The Democratic Process. Scholastic/ Childrens Press 64p     $27.00      978-0-531-23055-8       elem/ms      Series: Cornerstones of Freedom (Scholastic/Childrens)      Good       

Published in a national election year, The Democratic Process is a timely volume. 

The text provides basic information about the creation of the democratic process, including a short discussion contrasting democracies and republics.  Key figures involved in shaping the United States government, such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison, are described.  Influential documents that impacted the development of the democratic process in the United States are reviewed, and links to some of them (the Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution, and the Patriot Act) are provided, but the discussion of the democratic process would have been more complete if the Articles of Confederation had also been included among these links. 

The text contains useful information, and the layout is appealing, including colorful photographs and illustrations, a timeline, glossary, index, and sidebars.  The text, however, is choppy, interrupted by the layout and sidebars.                                       --Hilary Welliver