Monday, December 06, 2010

A Great Gift for Giving

I love to buy children's books for gifts for the children in my life, and recently I found a new one that is just lovely. Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama is a beautifully illustrated book with a great message.
The book begins, "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?" It then goes on to ask, "Have I told you that you are creative/smart/brave/strong, etc.?" and then tells about Georgia O'Keeffe, and on through many notable people through history. The message of the book as a whole is the potential that all people have, to do great things, no matter where they come from. The illustrations by Loren Long are amazing!

Now, I love this book because it is truly a lovely book - - nothing to do with whether or not I like President Obama (I do, by the way). I'm curious to know - - do you teach your children to respect the President, regardless of your political views, or whether or not you think any particular president is doing a good job or not? I ask this because I have gotten some bizarre reactions from grown adults, mind you, when I've brought up this book in conversation and recommended it as a potential Christmas gift. Sad, my friends, but true. Anyway, enough about that...if you have a little person in your life that loves books, then this book is a gem. FYI, the best price I've found so far is at Costco.

5 comments:

Melissa said...

As a parent of avid readers, I'm a book-giver too. :) My favorite for little girls is The Paper Bag Princess!

Heather said...

I will have to check that one out Melissa...I'm in need of some great "girl" book ideas.

Nicky said...

I don't have kids, but if I did, I certainly wouldn't cloud their young, developing minds with any negative thoughts I might have about a Presidential figure. I can only imagine some of the comments you've received!

Anonymous said...

Love, love, love it!! I must say I didn't vote for him but we checked this book out of the library. I had been waiting for it to come out..We read it like 50 times this week....Even made Kenzy read it.
Rachel

JEN said...

We teach that the office of President of the US is one to be respected, whether you voted him in or not. We pray for him, whoever he is, daily, and share that we might not agree with or like some of the choices he makes, but we pray for and respect him anyway.

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