“This
book tells a story of how a child can change
the world. It creates a space where children
can experience the extraordinary life of
President Barack Obama while imagining the
possibilities for themselves. I am Barack
Obama includes accounts of children already
using this inspirational moment in history
to imagine their futures in compelling ways,
as captured by the powerful statement, ‘I am
Barack Obama.’”
Barack Obama’s ascendance to the Presidency
was undoubtedly moving
to anyone old enough to have endured Jim
Crow segregation during those shameful days
before black folks were allowed basic human
rights like access to restaurants, hotels or
even the voting booth. Understandably, it
might now be satisfying enough for elders
who suffered such indignities simply to sit
back and bask in the reflected glory of
Obama’s historic achievement.
But that feat ought to have a
very different meaning for children growing
up today. For given Barack’s rise from some
rather humble roots, his life story of
beating the odds should serve as an
inspiration to them and to impressionable
young minds for generations to come that
they can turn any dream into reality,
however big, however improbable.
That’s precisely the message of
I am Barack Obama, a priceless biography of
our new President by Charisse Carney-Nunes,
a mother of two who designed it for kids
still in their formative years. In the
preface, we learn that the author also
happens to know her subject personally,
having attended Harvard Law School at the
same time as Obama. In fact, there’s even a
picture of them together, taken in April of
1991.
The tome’s uplifting narration,
written in a bouncy rhyme, is not so much
strictly about Barack as about the
incredible potential inside each and every
one of us which is waiting to be unlocked.
But the book’s beautiful illustrations by
Ann Marie Williams do feature familiar
tableaus of Obama at every stage of his
development, from learning to ride a
tricycle all the way to his finally standing
at a podium in front of the President Seal.
Fitfully, I am Barack Obama
closes with over a dozen testimonials by
children representing a diversity of ethnic
backgrounds. Each one essentially affirms,
as 10 year-old Raequan eloquently puts it,
“No matter where you come from, when you put
your mind to it, you can do or be anything.“
What more proof do you need that times have
certainly changed?