Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope

Beautifully done, this picture book is more of a character study than a typical children’s biography. There’s not a lot of hard facts or dates. In fact, the narrative, which sometimes slips into poetry, focuses on big ideas and questions. Some of the material requires background knowledge about Obama. In addition, the amount of text is very long for a picture book. Some children will need an adult to read with them to fill in gaps in knowledge, make inferences, discuss fairly sophisticated ideas about personal identity — and perhaps simply to handle the length. With support, and especially combined with other forms of biography, this could be a very valuable resource in not only learning about Obama but also for exploring the show more theme of finding one’s place in the world. show less

K to 5th. Nikki Grimes and Bryan Collier powerfully represent how much Barack Obama's candidacy means to African American children in Barack Obama Son of Promise, Child of Hope. In it a boy asks his mother who the man on television is and his mother tells him by telling the story of President Obama's life. Into the biographical details, she weaves in challenges of identity and living far from his father that the President had. At the bottom of each two-page spread, we can read the boy's responses of identification with and sympathy with the story. Finally we learn, the boy is aspiring to become president too when he grows up. By these being the last words of the book, as well as his mother's response to hold him tight, Grimes and show more Collier distill President Obama's story to a deeply meaningful cultural point. Now African and American children can imagine themselves as president with no barriers. Collier's collage art and two page illustrations deeply collaborate with Grimes moving words. The collages of overlapping patterns and colors mirror the theme of many influences in President Obama's life. Interestingly, there is less collage and more straightforward drawing and painting in the scenes involving water- both when Barack Obama is playing with his multi-ethnic friends on a childhood Hawaiian beach, and then when he's running among people of different ethnicities by the Hudson. Possibly Collier is expressing the idea that we feel more whole and healthy when we are in whole and healthy communities. Grimes and Collier frame President Obama's story as how powerfully it impacts African American children and their dreams. This book is highly recommended for public library and school collections. show less

Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope Biography
Written by Nikki Grimes, Illustrated by Bryan Collier

“Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope” is a biographical account of our president’s life for children. Although this is a biography, it reads like a narrative. This makes more appealing for young readers. For example, the book begins with a little boy named David asking his mother who the man on television is. She goes on to tell him about Barack Obama and how he grew up and became president. Grimes says, “They used to call him Barry. His family stretched from Kansas to Kenya, his mama white as whipped cream, his daddy black as ink”. In addition to narrative form, the author uses many similes to give the reader show more visualization and to increase their understanding. Later she says, “Honolulu looked like heaven. But even though the blue of the sea was sharp enough to slice the sun, and the sun warmed the sand between his toes, and the sand sparkled like diamonds, nothing could fill the hole in Barry’s heart”. These similes create beautiful images in the readers mind. In addition to the biographical information about Obama, Grimes also includes little excerpts from David and his mother. Grimes writes,
“What is hope, Mama?” asked David.
“Hope is believing in something before you see it”
“Like make-believe?” asked David.
“No, honey,” said his mother. “Hope is real.”
This quote also includes the main idea of the biography. You can accomplish anything if you have hope and you set your mind to it. Obama had huge dreams that seemed impossible; however, he worked never stopped working hard and believed he could accomplish his goals until he finally reached them. show less

Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope is a sweet biography of the 44th president of the United States. This story is told from the perspective of a young boy, David, asking his mother about the president. This is an interesting way of learning about President Obama's life, we learn along with our main character. I enjoyed that David is clearly inspired by the president because of the similarities between the president and himself. This story really does a wonderful job of helping young readers see that President Obama was not all that different than many children when he was young, Also, the message of wanting to help others and hope in this book really does make the reader feel encouraged and inspired. The illustrations in this show more book are really beautiful, helping the reader see the story very well. Overall, I enjoyed this book. This is not a standard biography because of the storytelling technique, but that really makes it interesting. show less

Barrack Obama Son of Promise, Child of Hope is a biographical tale of Obama's life as child, and the road he took to deciding to run for president. The story mostly covers issues he had with his identity and who he was as a person. This book drives home that hope for a better tomorrow is important, along with accepting others for who they are. One downside of the book is the illustrations, they come off a little creepy. They are life like, while at the same time not realistic enough. It definitely takes the reader out of the book. Overall this book has an endearing and powerful story, sadly though the illustrations detract from the experience.

This story is about a young man named Barack Obama, and the path he took to become the first black president of the United States. Grimes writes from the perspective of a mom telling her son about Obama, and Grimes writes about Obama's childhood life. This is definitely a fresh story to look at, because it is not so heavily focused on his political career. It is about Obama's struggle dealing with his parents divorce, the young Obama traveling the world wanting to make a change, and his religious faith that lead him to where he is today.

I really loved this story, not only was it about our president today, but it had a wonderful message of hope. I really loved how the author incorporated Barack's childhood into his dream. I also really liked that the story was a mother telling it to her child. It was just like it could be any mother and any child. Finally I really like the fact that they talked about how Barack was different because he was not one or the other. I like this because there are many children just like that and they all need to know that they can dream anything they want too. I would like to have this book to use in a future classroom for sure.