How beautiful is this?
President Obama's book is in the stores now,
from The Washington Post
By Stephen Lowman
"Have I told you that America is made up of people of every kind?" asks President Obama in his latest book.Two weeks after voters gave his party a "shellacking," Obama is out with children's book celebrating the American people.
“Of Thee I Sing,” aimed at children ages 3 and up, is light on text but rich with Loren Long’s illustrations. On the opening page Obama addresses his two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
“Have I told you lately how wonderful you are? / How the sound of your feet / running from afar / brings dancing rhythms to my day? / How you laugh / and sunshine spills into the room?”
Obama goes on to tell them about 13 “groundbreaking Americans.” In order, they are:
Georgia O’Keeffe (“helped us see big beauty in what is small”)
Albert Einstein (“changing the world with energy and light”)
Jackie Robinson (“showed us all how to turn fear to respect”)
Sitting Bull (“a Sioux medicine man”)
Billie Holiday (“sang beautiful blues”)
Helen Keller (“taught us to look and listen to each other”)
Maya Lin (“public spaces should be filled with art, she thought”)
Jane Addams (“fed the poor”)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (“taught us unyielding compassion”)
Neil Armstrong (“first to walk on the moon”)
Cesar Chavez (“showed farmworkers their own power”)
Abraham Lincoln (“promised freedom to enslaved sisters and brothers”)
George Washington (“our first president”)
Obama’s dedication reads: “To Michelle — whose fierce love and daily good sense have nourished such wonderful daughters.”
Random House said that the 40-page book has a first printing of 500,000 copies. It has a list price of $17.99.
The origins of the book date back to 2004, when then Senator Obama inked a three book deal with Random House worth $1.9 million.
Proceeds from the sales “Of Thee I Sing” will be donated to a scholarship fund that serves the children of soldiers who have been killed or disabled.
The book is subtitled "A Letter to My Daughters," but it's not the first time the president has written a letter to Sasha and Malia for everyone to see. Shortly before taking office in 2008 Parade Magazine published a "letter" he wrote to them.
Say what you will about Barack Obama, but it's quite obvious he is a wonderful loving husband and father. His family are lucky to have him.....I think we are too
