Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope

Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope






Customers Review:

• Hope is what we want for children
  I scanned the pages of this book in the bookstore, saw one illustration that made me wonder if the book was more religious than I'd like, but I bought for my grandson anyway. At home the first thing I did was check the Amazon price. The average customer rating was a dismal 2.5, but I noticed a curious thing: all reviews were either 1 star or 5 star--nothing in between...
  
  
• I scanned the pages of this book in the bookstore, saw one illustration that made me wonder if the book was more religious than I'd like, but I bought for my grandson anyway. At home the first thing I did was check the Amazon price. The average customer rating was a dismal 2.5, but I noticed a curious thing: all reviews were either 1 star or 5 star--nothing in between. How odd! Might something other than objectivity be at work here?
  So I read each review, then actually read the book I'd bought. My professional opinion, as an editor for 44 years and a writer of 11 published books, is that this book is well written. It's attractively illustrated. The message is one of hope, with the religious reference one tiny part of the whole. The vocabulary is suited for children, including my grandson, almost 7--although the parental reader might gloss over a word such as "tenement" or explain it, along with the metaphor of Barack's studying in the shadow of Pali's Peak, the Hollywood sign, and Langston's Harlem. Glossing or explaining are age-appropriate decisions that grownups make all the time. Best of all, in only 38 pages (75 percent illustration), and with the story-within-a-story device effectively adopting the perspective of a fictional child having a dialogue with his mother, this book lets children glimpse the life of our next president from his childhood on.
  
  
• I loved Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. It is powerful and moving. As I read the book to my 3 year old daughter, I cried tears of joy for Obama's presidential victory. The book is poetic but basically is a biography, which is undoubtedly based on Obama's book Dreams from my Father. It is not for children as young as 3 but she will grow into it. I like that this book gives children and introduction to their new president and gives them some background as to his road and struggles to the White House.
  
  
• 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.

BARACK OBAMA: SON OF PROMISE, CHILD OF HOPE
Listed on New York Times Children's Book List