Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope

Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope

Dreams Can Come True...

YES, WE CAN. We can dream. YES, WE CAN. We can achieve those dreams. YES, WE CAN. We can change America. YES, WE CAN. This story chronicles Obama's life as he leads up to running for President. The historical nature of the story is intriguing. They used to call him Barry until he embraced his father and his name Barack. As his mother taught him proper English, Godly virtues, and love of family his sense of adventure took hold. Education was his foothold and studying was his pastime. Barack felt the urgent need to help the community overcome the adversity and now he is making history... The illustrations are absolutely breathtaking. The storyline seems to be historical correct and the important dates chronology provide validation. The story touches on several topics - divorce, family, values, education, and community involvement. The family tree, additional sources and bibliography prove the intense research used to write this book. Deltareviewer Reviewing for Real Page Turners

Poetic, rich, and I can't wait to share it with our students

I think Nikki Grimes' middle name must be Lyric. There is poetry on every single page of this book. Poetry, and as the title says, Promise and Hope. Grimes, ever the artist in words, weaves her images with historical facts in presenting this biography of the man who may very well change the world, through the words of a mother explaining to her son just who this guy with the "mouthful" of a name and the people shouting. From a strictly educational standpoint, this is a wonderful book for teaching metaphor, simile, and descriptive language. It's absolutely lush with images. The teachers in the school where I work as a librarian are already drooling over this one. Here are a couple of quotes to illustrate my point: "His family stretched from Kansas to Kenya, his mama, white as whipped cream, his daddy, black as ink...Love is the bridge that held them all together." "Honolulu looked like heaven. But even though the blue of the sea was sharp enough to slice the sun, and the sun warmed the sand between his toes, and the sand sparkled like diamonds, nothing could fill the hole in Barry's heart once his daddy went away." Tough issues are handled here with grace and compassion, and so is the exotic childhood landscape in which Barack Obama was privileged to grow up, beauty and harshness together. Grimes presents these for young readers in such a way as to let them know that this boy went through both good times and hard times, and as he grew into a man, he learned from his life experiences and listened and watched and soaked in the voice of Hope, and later, prayerfully, the voice of God. As I read, I was moved by the beauty of Grimes' language, but also by the beauty of the message here. The mother and son's dialog seemed tacked on at first, and distracted me from it, but as I read, I understood that Grimes had imbued the boy with the voice of the young reader, that he was asking the questions they would ask, and making the connections that many of them would make. Brilliant. Some may call this over-the-top on the glorification of Obama, but I call it rich writing. It is engaging and I am looking forward to sharing this with our students. Besides, if ever there was a time we needed an over-the-top message of Hope, perseverence, and the breaking down of barriers, it's now, and most especially for this generation. The art, well, much of it is just breathtaking. I wish I could share more of it here. It's a mix of textures and colors, torn images, paint, and lines, and it all blends together - a great reflection of the lyricism in Grimes' words. I highly recommend this book. Love is indeed the bridge that holds us all together, after all. "Can we make America better? Can we work together as one?" Yes, we can. Roxyanne Young Editorial Director SmartWriters.com

Lovely Book!

This is a beautifully written book about our next President! It's very moving and explains just how much he has touched the lives of many millions of people. YES WE CAN!

Beautifully Written and Illustrated Book about Barack Obama

This is a moving beautifully written piece about Barack Obama. It is very well written and very moving. I am not a Barack Obama fan but I can't deny that this is a good book. It does map out the searching, religious story he has tried to communicate to the public. Whether or not it is truly an accurate portrait remains to be seen but I that doesn't detract from the book and its message. It's scary to try to live up to this kind of idealism.

A review from a teacher...If this were a read aloud book

I'm a 2nd grade teacher. I went to Barnes and Noble tonight and one of my missions was to look at the picture books regarding the presidential candidates (I knew that there had to be a few by now) to read to my students during our daily read aloud times. I want to be able to present each of the candidates in a fair manner. While at the store I found this book. The books is SO heavy-handed (I looked to see if it hadn't been written by, endorsed by, or if the profits weren't going directly to the DNC). Barack comes across as a Moses for our times. He is spoken to by "Hope", and later on it seems that Hope turns into the voice of God. God doesn't just stir his soul but recites sentences/a paragraph, and seems to anoint him a modern-day prophet. The child in the book even compares him to Joseph of the new testament. This is going WAY too far (unless of course we are to expect The Book of Barack to be added to the Bible any day now). Actually, the heavy-handed writing made me laugh as I rejected even the possibility of bringing it into the classroom. I do, though, allow adult guest readers to bring in books of their choosing when they join us for read alouds. I started to wonder how I would handle the situation if someone brought in this book. My solution will be to apologize immensely and then mention, "Oooops, we were suppose to go to the art room for a special presentation. We'll have to reschedule this read aloud." There is no way I could present this book to my students. I might as well read the Bible and replace major names with Barack. PLEASE publishers! Give us DECENT books about the candidates. (*A note to Barack (though I doubt he will be taking time to read my little review): Do you endorse these books or comments that compare you to Biblical figures???? I think you would do your campaign well to tell people to start considering you to be a mere man. You aren't a rock star. You aren't a prophet. I think these comparisons might wear on people and lose you an election.)

Keyword : obama