YES WE CAN, a biography of Barack Obama (for kids)

I like my job at Bloomsbury. Even amidst crazy deadlines and hefty workloads, I enjoy going to an office three days a week to help keep the machine running. Every now and then a random treat pops up on my desk from a mysterious stranger — even more incentive! Last Thursday that treat was, YES WE CAN, a biography of Barack Obama, by Garen Thomas, published by Feiwel and Friends.

“WE NOW LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE MOST VALUABLE SKILL YOU CAN SELL IS KNOWLEDGE.”
-Barack Obama

I am already in love with Barack Obama and contribute to his campaign regularly. This book makes me fall even more. It is a book for children about Barack Obama, his childhood, his inspirational words, and his road to the presidency. At 224 pages, it will be a quick read for adults, and an informative one for kids. Nestled within the written facts are also a family tree, maps, childhood photos, and powerful quotes paired with campaign trail photos. Just flipping through the pages made my heart race a bit.

*The book is authored by Garen Thomas who worked as an editor in children’s book publishing for more than a decade, editing numerous notable children’s picture books and novels, including Carole Boston Weatherford’s Caldecott Honor BookMoses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, illustrated by Kadir Nelson; Nelson’s We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball; and the Coretta Scott King Award-winning novel Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue, by Julius Lester. She continues to act as a consultant and children’s books editor on a freelance basis while working on her own writing and film projects. She holds an A.B. from Harvard University.

5 Comments

  1. Ellie
    February 10, 2009

    Nice job! Keep working on it!

    Reply
  2. Florida Hunting Guy
    July 2, 2009

    is this suppose to enlighten or inspire young people?

    Reply
    • admin
      July 3, 2009

      A bit of both I suppose. Though largely biographical, it is designed with quotes and photographs as chapter dividers.

      Reply
  3. honey
    August 27, 2010

    hello.
    may i know the year & place of this book was published??
    because my lecturer had assigned us to search for the someone’s biography for the purpose of citation learning.
    thank u if u can help me.

    Reply

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