Further cements the 44th U.S. president’s status as a strong role model and an admirable human being.
A respectful profile of Barack Obama, from childhood to the White House.
Readers will have to learn elsewhere that Obama is still alive and a public figure, since the appended timeline ends in 2017, before much of the intended audience was born. Rappaport’s narrative ends even earlier than that, with approving references to his overseeing the 2011 assassination of Osama Bin Laden and the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order. Still, along with laying out major events in his life (so far) in a narrative punctuated by direct quotes, she does illuminate some nuances in his character. She notes that he lived comfortably in Indonesia rather than in “hovels” like many of his neighbors and that he didn’t have the smoothest relationship with his distant, autocratic birth father. More significantly, the author links early lessons in Civil Rights history from Obama’s mother (“Five days a week, at four in the morning”) and guidance in treating others with compassion from his loving adoptive father. She also links his resolution of his early confusion about his own racial identity to his later firm, principled commitment to equality across lines of race and social class in the face of determined opposition from Republican opponents and “vicious assaults” from the media. Flashing that wide smile from an early age, he cuts a dignified figure in Engel’s illustrations, both in cozy family settings and posing before racially diverse crowds.
Further cements the 44th U.S. president’s status as a strong role model and an admirable human being. (author’s and illustrator’s notes, selected bibliography, source notes) (Picture-book biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780316397834
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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