Reviews for Of thee I sing %3A a letter to my daughters
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
*Starred Review* If Barack Obama wants to quit his day job (and maybe he might), he can probably make it as a children's book author. Certainly, this is a beautiful package: thoughtfully conceived, handsomely illustrated and designed, and with a tight yet evocative text that brings children into the world of 13 famous Americans. Framed as a letter to his daughters ( Have I told you lately how wonderful you are? the book begins), each double-page spread then asks a question that is exemplified by a person of note. Have I told you that you are creative? introduces Georgia O'Keeffe, who helped us see big beauty in what is small: / the hardness of stone and the softness of feather. Most of the people briefly profiled are expected names George Washington, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, César Chávez but there are a few outliers here as well, including Billie Holiday and Sitting Bull. As the spreads turn, other children join (the unnamed) Malia and Sasha on the question page, each embodying their own special gifts and talents. Long's exceptional artwork has a timeless, Rockwellian quality that serves the text well, and the congregation of the children at the book's conclusion will have readers looking and looking again. An addendum features a bit more about each person highlighted. Parents will be happy to talk to their own children about how creative or kind or strong they are and reiterate, as the president does, their place in the American family.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Gr 2-5-In characteristically measured prose, the 44th President introduces 13 American icons and heroes as exemplars of personal virtues, from Georgia O'Keeffe (creativity) and Jackie Robinson (courage) to Helen Keller (strength) and Cesar Chavez (inspiration). Though he includes Billie Holiday in his gallery (a gifted singer, but an iffy role model) along with a free translation of Chavez's !Si se puede! as "Yes, you can!" (which was his campaign slogan: the official UFW version is a more accurate but stiffer "Yes, it can be done!"), Obama offers general but cogent summations of why each figure merits admiration-Martin Luther King Jr., for instance, "taught us unyielding compassion," and Helen Keller, "never waiting for life to get easier," "gave others courage to face their challenges." Long's superb technical gifts and gentle sense of humor shine in the pictures. Posed nobly and, usually, hard at work in full-page scenes, each man or woman also appears as a willowy but recognizable child on the facing and following pages, joining a growing crowd of young observers gazing across the center stitching and exchanging symbolic tools of their various trades. Their ranks swelled with more children, these younger versions turn to face viewers on the penultimate spread, followed by a closing painting of the author walking with his daughters and a page of reasonably accurate historical notes. As well as offering thought-provoking choices and commentary, this stately outing leads naturally to Lynne Cheney's more populous America: A Patriotic Primer (S & S, 2002) as first introductions to our country's great ones.-John Peters, formerly at New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
With the conceit of providing inspiration to his daughters, Obama presents thumbnail portraits of thirteen notable Americans, from George Washington to Jackie Robinson to Maya Lin. The writing is sometimes heavy-handed, but the array of subjects is thoughtful. Long's emotive acrylic paintings and a smart book design have more pull than the text. Brief biographies of the subjects are appended. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
