Little Read Lakeshore 2026 Book

What Can a Citizen Do?

Dave Eggers

"A citizen can pick up litter
A citizen can pull a weed
A citizen can help that critter
A citizen can plant a seed..."

― Dave Eggers, What Can a Citizen Do?

Book Summary

“[This] charming book provides examples and sends the message that citizens aren’t born but are made by actions taken to help others and the world they live in.” —The Washington Post

This is a book about what citizenship—good citizenship—means to you, and to us all: Across the course of several seemingly unrelated but ultimately connected actions by different children, we watch how kids turn a lonely island into a community—and watch a journey from what the world should be to what the world could be.

  • What Can a Citizen Do? is the latest collaboration from the acclaimed behind the bestselling Her Right Foot: Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris.
  • For today’s youngest readers about what it means to be a citizen and the positive role they can play in society.
  • Includes beautiful illustrations and intriguing, rhyming text.

“Obligatory reading for future informed citizens.” —The New York Times

What Can a Citizen Do is an empowering and timeless read with an important message for all ages.

  • Great family read-aloud book
  • Books for kids ages 5-8
  • Picture books for grades K-3
About The Author

Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers is the author of many books, among them Contrapposto, The Eyes and the Impossible, The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, Heroes of the Frontier, A Hologram for the King, and What Is the What. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company, and co-founder of 826 Valencia, a youth writing center that has inspired over 70 similar organizations worldwide. Eggers is winner of the American Book Award, the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Education, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the TED Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the 2024 John Newbery Medalist, for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature for The Eyes and the Impossible. Eggers is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviews

What Can a Citizen Do? by Dave Eggers raises the urgent question of how to be engaged, compassionate, and empowered, and the cut-paper illustrations by Shawn Harris are so fun and so richly detailed that kids will make new discoveries on every read. It’s an absolute delight.”

—Maile Meloy, New York Times bestselling author of Do Not Become Alarmed and The Apothecary

“Teaches young readers that being engaged and informed can turn anyone into an activist, no matter their age.”

—Time Magazine

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash