"Truth springs from the mouths of babes." How often have you heard some variation on that theme when it comes to kids blurting out what they think or feel without filtering it through social expectations or attempts to curry favor?
Unlike the adults who populate the DC Beltway trying to use communications and posturing to their political power play advantage, kids tend to just speak bluntly about what is on their minds and in their hearts.
Their hopes, fears, and wants are remarkably similar to those of the adults around them. But filter their perceptions of what’s on mom and dad’s mind with an eye toward getting to the heart of the matter rather than skirting around the more palatable compromise edges.
This is where Dear President Obama: Letters of Hope from Children Across America comes in. The letters are sassy, sweet, and frank about the problems children see themselves, their families and their nation facing.
Linda Ellerbee’s forward to the book hits this square as she tells of a presidential debate held for Nick News, a children’s news program on Nickelodeon children’s network:
When Senators Barack Obama and John McCain sat down with us to answer kids’ questions, most of the questions were about familiar issues and evoked familiar answers. But then one kid said, "Hello, my name is Kedric and I’m 13, and I know what it is like to be picked last for the football team at school. I was wondering, have you ever been picked last and how did you handle it?"
The answers the two men gave to that question revealed more about them, more about who they are and what they are made of, than we saw in any of the "grownup" debates. But it took a kid to ask the question.
For those interested, the LATimes had a brief summary of the answers.
The kids in this book do tackle some tough issues:
My brother has brain tumors and I have two rare disorders. My Mom has been worried all these years that we would not get health insurance because of our terrible sickness. If my brother does not have health insurance he would not get his medicine and he would die…. — Casey, age 14
And this:
I am an eighth grader. War has been going on since I can remember; I think it should end. All troops should come home and be with their families…. — Kyle, age 13
Or this:
…When you’re in the oval office, you’ll be engulfed with responsibilities. Every word you speak will be heard by the country. This will be overwhelming for you, but please don’t forget what you stand for.
Don’t forget the values and issues that made you want to run for president.
Don’t forget the middle class like our last President did…. — Julian, age 12
And this:
There are now over half a million people without jobs and homes. What is the answer to this mind-boggling conundrum? Invest in America. Take all the billions being used to finance the war and bail out companies that have filed for bankruptcy and use it to create more roads, educate kids and come up with more ways to turn America green…. — Aswin, age 12.
Or this:
…I know somebody who is fighting in Iraq. His name is Mick. He is one of my friends’ dads. He is a soldier. I want him to stop fighting the war because he might get hurt. I want him to come home. Could you please stop the war? — Gabriel, age 7
It’s been my opinion for a long time that we ignore childrens’ issues and concerns in this country at our peril. Bruce and David use a quote from Frederick Douglass at the start of the book which has long been a favorite of mine: "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
This book shows just how strong and resilient those children can be, and how wise for their young ages. Would that adults in this country would recognize that we all have a lot to learn from them as well. With that, I welcome Bruce and David and open the floor for your questions and comments.
Related posts:
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes David Kessler, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes Paul Tough, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes Bruce Bartlett, The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes Michael Huttner and Jason Salzman, 50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes David Swanson, Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union
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Bruce, David, Welcome to the Lake.
Christy, Thank you for Hosting this Book Salon.
Hi,. thanks for having us.
thank you
Welcome Bruce and David. So great to have you here at FDL. Really enjoyed the book — especially how up front and blunt kids are about the problems this nation faces, and how we need solutions rather than just kicking the can down to the next generation.
Hello?
I loved the introduction in the book on how this collection of letters came about — can you talk a bit about how you got so much participation from kids around the country?
kids are great
Thanks, that’s how we felt about it, too. As we said throughout the whole process, kids really get it!
Also, were there particular letters or subjects that struck you in the letters you all received? The one from Gabriel, age 7, that I featured above hit me at a gut level — the please bring my friend’s dad home from Iraq plea was awfully poignant.
Did each of you have a favorite or two? Or several?
one thing led to another, starting with friends, to friends of friends, friends in schools, friends who knew someone, friends who wanted to meet someone, cousins of friends who had friends, distant relation who defied description who had other friends, and so on.
What we aslo found interestinbg is how this whole thing — the process of culling the letters and the infectiousness of it — mirrored that of the Obama campaign itself. Peole told friends and family about our project and it became viral.
Good afternoon Bruce and David and welcome to FDL.
I have not had a chance to read your book but do have a question. How did you come ot do this book? I’m sure you must have had some influence from the old Art Linkletter “Kids Say the Darnedest Things”
several favorites because at differeent ages they evoke different reactions
My favorite letter is the one at the end of the book. Where the five year old from New Jersey writes, “Dear President Obama — Please gett everyone in a cricle and tell them what to do.” I ofund that incredibly direct, and touching.
I noticed there were several groups of class letters that you all included. Was that one of those “friend of a friend was a teacher” sorts of serendipity things for you all in terms of letters received?
I found the broad mix of topics among kids in the same age group and class really fascinating.
I loved the Linkletter segments. Buyt every generation had a talk-to-the-kids kind of device. Cosby was very big on that.
the day after the election my daughter wrote a letter to obama as part of a class assignment and she asked me to read it. well, suffice to say, i was pretty moved. i sent a copy to bruce – by regular mail – it was handwritten – telling him i though there was a book to be made, that there must be 100’s of these all over the country.
As a technical note: There is a “Reply” button in the lower right hand corner of each comment. If you want to reply to a specific comment, just click the “Reply” and it will identify the comment and person to whom you are replying. (That way we can follow the ‘conversation’ thread)
I also loved the drawings that you all included. Having an art-loving six-year-old of my own, it was so fun to see the illustrations that the kids included for you. I was especially struck by the one that looked like a half-finished puzzle with Obama’s face as the picture. Really well done and thoughtful.
Yeah, a few freinds were teachers who involved their whole class. That was serendipitous — and challenging. We’d always feel bad if we left a student out. And we never published one one child without publishing his/her sibling.
in the class collections the variety of topics and emotions tells quite a story all by itself
Hah! The half-finished puzzle picture was from my own daughter, bridgette!
Oh, how funny, Bruce! I hadn’t noticed her last name! LOL
Thanks for writing this book. I look forward to reading it. Do you know whether the President has seen it?
It’s always good to see comments from kids before they’re compelled to channel their expressiveness inside societally-approved boundaries. Only children are allowed to ask the really big questions, it seems.
we sent the first family five books — Mr. and Mrs. O, the kids and Mrs. Robinson. we’re not sure yet if they’ve seen it, tho.
One of the themes that repeated itself in so many of the letters was that of a fear of being unable to avoid health care and/or fears about the economy and poverty. It seems that kids have a much better grasp of those issues — and the fears we adults have about them — than they are given credit for, doesn’t it?
What was the process to decide which schools, children, were selected to submit to the book? Geographically? Economically?
David and Bruce, welcome to FDL. A very cool effort. Do you have any thought of following up with these same children in (this is just a current guess) eight years to see how they view the Obama presidency through the lens of time? They are very sanguine now, but i wonder what the view will be down the road with some of the duplicity exhibited by the politics of Obama in the face of governing and the heightened awareness and base of knowledge of the kids.
I spent forever this morning trying to find a transcript of the “debate” that Linda Ellerbee referenced above because I wanted to know the answer given by both Obama and McCain on Kendric’s question. Took a while to find even a summary. *G*
I thought it was really a superb question, though, on a thought-provoking level. Better than we saw in a lot of the pundit-led debates, frankly.
kids are affected directly by a crappy health care system. either they can’t get the care they need, themselves, or they’re forced to watch their parents or other loved ones, and friends, suffer at the hands of an inadequate system. so they know a lot, yeah.
We tried to include as many states as possible. After a while, that became our obsession. But i should note that of the 29 states rep[resented in the book, we have a fairly equal balanxce between red and blue.
As foe following these kids, yes, it would be cool to follow them as they get older. I hope a publisher agrees!
It’s very sad that children are anxious about healthcare and the economy, and how these issues touch their hearts. I don’t remember worrying about healthcare growing up, at least until I got a job after graduation that didn’t have insurance. It’s just really tragic that childhood should include worries about healthcare.
sure, we’d like to follow up in four years – or three, actually, and have a big publisher buy us a huge RV to go cross country and see all of our kids and find out what they think now that obama and his gang have been in office awhile. it would be swell, for many reasons, in 2012 and 2016.
linda is terrific – wish there were pundits on tv as bright as her
As a practicing attorney, I used to do a lot of work with at-risk kids in abuse and neglect cases and in juvenile cases. It is amazing how aware kids are of any number of very serious problems at young ages. I think a lot of adults who have not had broad exposure to kids in those situations have little to no idea how a three year old can worry about mommy taking her medications or being terrified of someone getting sick because then the family has to choose between food or going to the doctor.
It’s a gut level fear for those kids, and one that haunts them for a lifetime.
I feel the same way, Teddy. then again, think about how this will affect the civic awareness of threse kids, and how that might help them beciome future leaders. If you go onto our web site — http://www.obamakids.us — and watch some of the video we posted, you’ll see a child from Ohio that looks and speaks like a little Obama! Both David and I said, “This kid is GOING to be pr3esident one day.”
we went after a cross section of schools and to be honest, in the time period we were working, we took what we could gather. we did all of this without throwing out a national search.
btw, for those who haven’t yet read the book — the letters were collected in the period after Barack Obama had won the election but before he was sworn into office (so between November 2008 and January 2009).
there’s so much that many people don’t realize kids are exposed to – real tough stuff. too many people live in a haze of reality tv tht doesn’t capture much reality at all.
David and Bruce, Please don’t do the math but I remember in grade school sending a labored handwritten letter to JFK. His Office Counsel replied and to this day I remember that typewritten sentence, “The things you wrote meant a great deal to him.” Now, I TOTALLY swallowed that and the sentence lives on VERBATIM with me today. :)
Did you have any discussions about finding kids whose parents didn’t support Obama, or did you not pay attention to the adults’ politics at all?
David, did you find common themes, surprise themes, from the children as you read the letters? I was taken back by the depth of their understanding of “adult” issues.
If I had my druthers, we’d have nothing but Linda Ellerbees, Dan Rathers, Molly Ivins and Bill Moyers. But, alas, I’m not in charge of the punditry. *g*
one thing that was helpful to us was ebing able to print in color, and include graphics. therre are a few other letters-to-obama books out there, but they’re B7W, and they’re mostly typeset, so that the five-year-old’s letter looks the same as the 18-year-old’s. So we tried to reproduce as many letters in the children’s own handwriting as possible. And they emailed us a letter, we tried to make the graphic presentation colorful and intersting.
There is at least one letter where one of the kids talks about not being a big Obama supporter, and another that I can remember who went to a school which did a straw poll that McCain won by a landslide.
And there are several letters which talk about lowering taxes being really important to the kid writing it. So there’s certainly a mix in the book on those lines.
Don’t forget Rachel Maddow!
such a great story, libby. DON’T sell that letter on eBay!
we asked a few friends who must’ve not ben voting for obama ’cause they passed on the chance to have their kids participate. obviously, we’re not friends anymore.and we don’t let our kids mingle with those other republican children.
I meant to say in the intro above that Bruce and David also included an address for you to send your own letter to President Obama:
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20050
Missing /s alert!
There are really too many to name — that was just off the top of my head of the “old school” folks that I used to enjoy on the evening news. I used to love Linda Ellerbees reporting on regular news (was she with CBS? can’t remember precisely, but she’s fantastic).
we had a lot of kids who not only invoked their paretns (anti-Obama) p.o.vs, but also supported them. we tried to include a few, but not a lot. The subtitle after all begins with the words “letters of hope.” FYI” the most negative comments we got were from McClean, Virginia. A battleground state to be sure.
Bruce how do young children get their news these days?
When I was a kid we read the “Weekly Reader” in school and
from time to time I would catch snippets of the evening news
on TV.
Wow, tax cuts? Where does that come from? When you think about all the services provided by the state that naturally accrue to kids’ benefit — schools, parks, vaccinations, roads, libraries, playgrounds, community centers — on a daily basis, it’s amazing to me that kids would be worried about taxes.
Times have changed.
I grew up in McLean.
The force is very strong there.
in this economy i think kids are more aware of money in general, especially when it’s not trickling down enough to them, specifically
Scholastic still sends out a news bulletin for kids in school — the schools have to pay for it, but I know my daughter’s kindergarten class got it this year, including one about President Obama once he was sworn into office in January. There is also news programming on Nickelodeon that Linda Ellerbee produces for them with kids doing a lot of the interviews for their show.
Kids get the news — and EVERYTHING — online. Pretty soon, CNN and NBC and PBS will wise up and and run their broadcasts live on Facebook. That’ll send their audience share skyrocketing.
I loved, loved, loved her sense of humor and was a tad jealous she went off to be with the kids which I sometimes watched. Her sense of outrage was similar to wonderful Molly’s!
And I loved her wearing the serious big glasses back when glasses were avoided on the tube. For a while I had Linda Ellerbee glasses and felt instantly brighter whenever I wore them.
We women needed that kind of role model!
My freind is a producer on Nick news. He’s the one who got us to Ellerbee. For my money, her foreword — and the wise words she write — was worth the whole expereince of putting the book togetrher. when I first read what she wrote, i actually cried. so smart, so on-the-money.
The tax cut discussion was almost always brought up int he context of their family and other families needing more of a margin on family budget — because cost of living, groceries, gas, etc., plus college tuition costs worries are growing. Kids really get that economic fear because they see those “kitchen table” conversations with the bills and their parents, and see the cutbacks with their own expenses like packing lunches and not having much pocket money these days.
How is your book doing? I think with all the horror going on right now amidst the adults and the dark revelations re torture, etc., this would be a warm haven of truth and simplicity and hope. And I feel for the kids who are getting an earful of the dark things being done in the name of this country.
After the blitz in England, they said the kids who were traumatized by the bombings were the ones who were discouraged from talking about the experience and exploring and processing it. The kids who got discussing it off their chests were significantly healthier emotionally.
Her introduction for you all really is wonderfully done. This, especially, hit home for me:
“Reading these letters to President Obama, I consider what wonders we may see if the kids of today can hang onto this passion, this hope, this wanting to do the right thing; if they can come together to make change for the good, to fight for justice, and to never, ever stop caring about their country, its citizens and our beautiful, spectacular, inspiring all-American differences.”
Amen. Would that we all felt that way every single day. Imagine where we could be?
it’s no secret to kids when services in their schools are cut, when they only have shirts for soccer uniforms, and when the local library closes down.
The book started out strong, Libby, and we were psyched. But like any book, things settled down. The only prob is, the book is preint-on-demand [POD] and only online–not in brick-and-mortar stores. So here’s a question to YOU all: How can we get the most eyeballs online? We’ve tried tons of viral avenues, but we haven;t yet hit on the kind of numbers we think the kids in the book deserve.
It’s especially no secret to those kids who have been depending on reduced or free school breakfast and lunch for two meals a day that summer break may mean the loss of that nourishment this summer. That ought to be a worry and concern for every American in the current economic climate.
We may know about it tangentially, but these kids have to live with going to bed with a gnawing hunger at night.
One thing might be to urge folks who read the book to buy a second copy for a local school library. I plan to do so for my daughter’s school. This is just the sort of thing her school librarian would love — and would make a good project for some of the classes for President’s Day, among others.
During the WWII time frame, I remember a book from when I was a teenager, from the Nazi Camps, it was pictures and comments from the children in the camps, totally heartbreaking. The book was, I Never Saw Another Butterfly.
that’s right, and they are everywhere. that’s nothing new, only now, there are more and more kids affected by foreclosures and parents losing jobs, etc.
that’s a powerful book
Bruce, I could swear I saw it in a B&N in NYC. Did I dream it? I thought, “What a great idea!” I was intending to check it out later when I had more time to peruse the shelves.
I know Shelly Goldberg, I think that is her name, on “New York One” (the tv cable channel most of us watch to know fast news and quick weather) does a segment exclusively for kids and events in NYC. I don’t know if she would give it a mention or at least have some ideas. She must have an incredible network of kid-related contacts.
Good idea. We actually sent three copies to the Sidwell school (where the Obama girls go) — one for each of their three libraries, and they loved it. We also reached out to the american library Association.
Would love to read that, Bev. Wow. Thanks for sharing it exists. Look at the power of Anne Frank’s book. Something about the truth even horrifying coming from a child. Even Angela’s Ashes was so touching written from a “young voice” narrator and the humor grabs at your heart and mind, because kids are so matter of fact and open. ARTLESS!
Artless, yet art. I like that.
One thing that caught my eye in the book was how much the kids picked up on the sense of hope and possibility that the Obama team projected. The words “Yes we can” don’t show up in the children’s letters, but they are clearly behind their writing.
Likewise, there is the strong sense of “OK, you won — now you can do X, just like you promised.” (End the war in Iraq, fix the economy, etc.”) Obama is a father, so I am sure he knows that no one remembers a promise like a child.
Good luck with your book, David and Bruce. Do you have any feel for how the kids whose letters you selected became aware of the important issues? Was there evidence that these kids come from families where issues are discussed, or are they getting their information from news sources, classroom discussion, etc. Was there a difference in the issues with respect to the childrens’ ages? And if you could hazard a guess, what was the percentage of the children whose letters were selected from the various classes? Sorry for so many questions at once.
libby, i’m guessing you mistook our book for a collection of kids letters from bill adler or a collection from mcseeney’s which came out in february. both books are small and black and white for the most part. our is better, to be frank. it’s much more visual and brings out all the individuality of the kids. our book is strictly online or the stores can order it for you. obviously, we anted a presence in the stores but couldn’t secure that.
You might also think about putting together a curriculum package for teachers for it — lesson plans, sample letter guidelines, etc., for them to do a class project with their own class to send a letter to the President. It wouldn’t have to be Obama-specific, but something they could use from year to year.
Teachers are as strapped for cash as most folks these days, especially as school budgets are cut to the bone. But something like that could cover history, civics, creative writing, reading, vocabulary, spelling, economics, government, current events, etc. And if you did a pre-printable lesson plan for them, teachers would love it, don’t you think?
kids are full of hope and direct about wanting that hope to be recognized and answered to, just as they should be. it’s simple really. if you promise stuff – them deliver.
Lemme try:
Q: Do you have any feel for how the kids whose letters you selected became aware of the important issues?
A: Kids pick up EVERYTHING around the dinner tab;e. Their parents talk and they hear it all.
Q: Was there evidence that these kids come from families where issues are discussed, or are they getting their information from news sources, classroom discussion, etc.
A: We dsivcoered that most of the schools had incorporated the elction into thier lesson plans. That’s a hopefulo sign. wish it happened more when i was in grade school.
Q: Was there a difference in the issues with respect to the childrens’ ages?
A; Yes — the younger kids liked to write about the environment (pandas, dolphins), the racial breaktrhough, and the coolness of the job of Pres. the older kids wrote a lot about taxes and the war.
Q: If you could hazard a guess, what was the percentage of the children whose letters were selected from the various classes?
A; It varied — some classes we took all the letters, others we took a handful. I’d say the average was, we took a third of the letters sent to us by each class.
David, I thought I recognized your wonderful cover up top of this thread from the book store. Seriously! The one I saw had color on the cover. I will go back and ask. I look forward to reading yours!
thank you. i hope you have the chance to see our book.
Let me second that.
School librarians are among the most endangered species at schools right now. When school districts have to make personnel cuts, they’ll cut just about anything and any one before cutting a classroom teacher. Some of the districts around here are cutting their library staffs by 75% — where once they had a librarian for every school, now they will have library aides at every school and one librarian for every four or five schools to oversee it.
Getting the attention of those that remain will be hard to do, but they and the teachers with whom they work will be eternally grateful for a book and lesson plans that can get kids excited about (a) reading, (b) writing, (c) current events, (d) history . . .
You can tell my mom taught 3rd grade for more than 30 years, can’t you? *g*
Thanks for the reply. It is hopeful that there wer class discussions on the election and candidates. I’ll have to ask my grandson (1st grade) nex time I see him if his class talked about it.
tying our book to classroom curricula is a solid idea. it connects with art work, poetry, letter writing skills, civics lessons, social action. social studies, etc. – for all kids of all ages. perhaps we can ready that over the summer for the new school year
[Breaking News: Wichita Doctor George Tiller Murdered at Church] Jesus.
From the book:
It really would be a lesson plan concept that could work year after year — not just for this particular president but for all of them to come. And, frankly, getting kids involved in having a say in their government from an early age would be a really great thing given how difficult it is to promote any sort of citizen participation these days.
See, this is what we were tryign to get at. These kids are so much smarter than the grown-ups in their lives. Having done this project for the last six months, I can GUARANTEE you that, if you polled these kids about abortion (or any other issue) their responses would be so much more RATIONAL than that of grown-ups. Sadly, we lose that authenticity, that honesty, as we grow older.
Tragic..suspect has been apprehended.
I think it is as much tuning out real feelings and failing to listen as we get older as anything else. Responses so often become rote instead of genuine after a while — kids haven’t gotten to that point yet.
Exactly, Christy. You either have a bunch of kids yourself, or you’re around them — a LOT.
*grin*
Some might say that the commenters around here can be child-like (or is that childish?) at times . . . and Christy’s here quite a lot!
Thanks for reprinting Anna’s letter, Peter. I love what she wrote. Her kid sister emily also wrote a letter — which included a great line: “I feel like if i knew you, i could trust you like I trusyt a friend.”
I have only one child. But my professional experience put me around a LOT of kids in the worst possible situations in court — abuse and neglect, juvenile criminal docket, custody fights, you name it. You have to stop and really listen to those kids in order to get at what it is they really need, otherwise you never get to the real root of the problems in order to help them at all.
It’s amazing how much you can pick up when you really pay attention and care about solid solutions instead of just slapping a band-aid on the problem and moving on without looking back to see if it holds.
Would that folks in Washington tried that a bit more frequently, I’d be a lot happier.
I think it’s also partly that adults form opinions, internalize them, and then become emotionally or socially invested in their opinions. Kids, not so much.
Bruce and David, before we get too much further in the chat, I do want to take a moment to thank you both for being here today — and for all the wonderful work that went into producing this book. You can tell that it was a labor that you both loved, both on those pages and here today.
It’s wonderful to see so much enthusiasm from these kids, as well as a sense of holding the President to his promises. Love that sense of accountability already from so many of these kids!
Here’s another favorite of mine. Simultaneously inspiring and heartbreaking.
November 24, 2008
Dear Mr. Barack Obama,
You being president made me feel very excited. I was happy to see that someone who looks like me can be President of the United States of America. I have had some hard times at my school during the election. The kids have been saying some mean things about people who look like us. I tried talking to the students — it did not work. So I went to my teachers who helped me find a solution. When I listened to your incredible speech and heard you say, “Yes We Can!” I started to believe we can change the student’s negative points of views at school.
There is another reason why I am so excited that you will be president. You see, my brother and I are very sick. My brother has brain tumors and I have two rare disorders. My Mom has been worried all these years that we would not get health insurance because of our terrible sickness. If my brother does not have health insurance he would not get his medicine and he would die. My Mom moved us from Florida to Connecticut so we could have health insurance. She wants us to have a good education, too. I really miss Florida because I miss my family and friends. However, I realize that it is better to have insurance. Maybe, someday we can have insurance and live anywhere we want to live. I believe this is possible because you are going to be president. As you said before, we do need change.
I believe it ….YES WE CAN!
Your friend,
Casey Mack
Age 14
Trumbull, CT
P.S. I can vote for you in the next election.
Two thoughts:
(1) When kids do get someone’s attention, they really eat it up. If you ask them a question and they know that you are listening and care about what they think, they’ll tell you everything.
(2) Another followup project — go back to these kids in a year or two, and ask them to write another letter. “He’s halfway through his term — what would you say to him now?”
Wow, I see that this book is so much richer and deeper with these letters. So glad to see these samples.
How that one line makes one realize how fast time flies, how fast kids grow. Old enough to vote for him. Old enough to risk his life in wars, too, which is sobering. How deserving of a voice these kids deserve to have, considering the state of the world and the price they are called on to pay.
Were there any children from non-traditional (LBGT) families who addressed this issue in their letters?
What’s interesting to me is how routine this is becoming to kids today. when Obama first got the nomination, I said to my 13 year old. “have you been discussing what a huge historical moment this is in class?” She said, “Of course.” I said, “to people of my generation it’s incredible.” And she said, :”to kids my age, we say, ‘it’s about time.’”
yes, more than a few
I don’t know if the girl was from a LGBT family, Teddy, but there was one letter in particular that I recall that solely addressed marriage equality and issues surrounding it and fairness that was really eloquent.
Good, thanks
The first letter, Election Night In My House, by Hannah Levine, 12 years old:
It ends with:
This from a 12 year old.
Could you do anything with podcasts, radio audios or a youtube videos for your promotions, having children actually read a few sample letters for recording?
Amiee:
Ah, yes — Hannah. what’s funny is that she wrote a letter that we liked. but then her dad said to me, can i show you an essay she wrote (on her own — no school assignment) the night of the election. I said sure. we were so bowled over by it, we decided to run it as the prologue to the book. It’s quite an amazing 9and well-written) essay.
well, we have a bunch of kids on our website reading their pieces and answering some questions – it’s lots of fun. go to http://www.obamakids.us – you’ll find a lot of good stuff there.we’re waiting for NPR to decide on running a bunch of kids….
I love Brian Lehrer and Leonard Lopate on wnyc radio. You guys would be great as an interview. It does sound like something wonderful for an NPR program.
Is there a documentary in the works?
you’re right – that would be really cool. i’m going to get bruce to get on this.
What a great website! Very impressive. You guys are way ahead of my ideas.
i have a theatre piece in the works based on the book – hopefully it can be mounted next year
thanks
Thanks, Libby. We had a blast building the websitre. we tried to makeit fun for kids, too. (Flash animation out the whazoo!)
As we come to the end of this Book Salon,
Bruce, David, Thank you for stopping by the Lake and spending the
afternoon with us discussing your new book and the children’s letters.
Christy, Thank you very much for Hosting this good Book Salon.
Everyone, if you haven’t bought Bruce and David’s book yet, here is a link.
Thanks all.
BTW — Christy: Thank you for your great essay above. We really appreciate it.
Have you done anything with YouthRadio in the SF Bay Area? They get an occasional slot for one of their stories at NPR, but they are a full blown operation of their own, and this sounds like something they might enjoy reporting on, or having you come in to chat about.
No documentary planned — but we keep encourgaing more of the kids to post vids of their letters online. The whole virual aspect adds another new intersting dynamic.
bruce did the website so send your congrats, flowers and chocolate directly to him
Bruce and David — one other idea for promo that strikes me as something that would be fun for kids: a video contest to send in to Nick News (if you could work out a joint contest something with them). Kids could read their letters and send in a video to the Nick News that they could play. Have a time limit on the video, but it could be something fun for kids and give you all promo, too.
On the issues they think are most important or that most need attention or problems they see in their own communities and/or things they have done to help solve them…the possibilities are endless. No idea what you could do for a prize — maybe a weekend in DC or a copy of the book or a chance to interview their Senator for Nick News or something along those lines.
we’d love to have nick news team up with or book. in fact, we’re working on it.
Bruce — you are most welcome. Kids issues — especially poverty — are a big soft spot for me. And this book makes so clear that kids cannot be simply shoved to the side by policy-makers without them comprehending what they are potentially discarding or relegating to second-class status in the process.
thanks to firedoglake for having us today. we really appreciate it.
Thx Christy. I love the idea of one of the prizes being a chance to intvu a Senator. That would really show the value of journalism, and send a gr8 msg.
Truly, it is an astonishingly appealing website! Great job!
Any sequel ideas? I know youth are big on conservation and have strong opinions on what is going on with the planet.
Wish the voices of children could help to stop the war machine.
Re: stopping th wat machine. Give ‘em time, Libby. I have such great faith in the kids of today. I think they’re going to bring us into daylight.
P.S. re the website — I already have the link posted to this discussion! See:
http://obamakids.us/NewsReviews.html
Yes, there was such a bounce in the kids pre-election. It illuminated for us cynical baby boomers the memories of an earlier feistier optimistic decade. Well, you guys are sending out some great ripples of truth and spirit. Thank you!
“Well, you guys are sending out some great ripples of truth and spirit. “
Man, i love that. Wanna be our publicist?
Thanks, David and Bruce. Thanks for hosting this, Christy.
OK, gang — well we gotta split. Child care and all!
Thanks so much for having us here. We so appreciate the support. Wishing you all a wonderful summer!
Best offer I have had in ages. :) To be continued on that great website of yours! Love the guest book sign in idea. Very smart. See you on your campus. And looking forward to hearing you on wnyc/npr at some point? Hope you post your appearances.
You guys, too — same childcare issues here as well. Must be the east coast universal bath, story, bed time. *g*
Thanks to both of you for being here today and for putting this book together. I do think it could be a great teaching resource for teachers wanting to encourage civic participation from their classes. Truly well done.