Operation Clean Sweep

Mom for mayor!

Election day is fast approaching, and twelve-year-old Cornelius Sanwick discovers a secret: his mom is running for mayor! That would be pretty neat, except that his dad is the incumbent. Corn feels torn -- surely he should warn his father. But if he does, his mother won't stand a chance. In 1916, Oregon is one of only eleven states in which women can vote, and they have to take office by stealth. Corn wonders what kind of mayor his mom would make. Would she be able to get the streetlights turned back on? Would she corral the chickens and keep their poop off the streets? And what would she do if the pickpocket Sticky Fingers Fred showed up in Umatilla?

Friendship, first love, and above all filial devotion play their parts in this charming story set during the Great War and based on a true episode in the history of Umatilla, Oregon -- the female takeover of the town's government.