Read Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters Online
Authors: Barack Obama
Tags: #American, #General, #Biography & Autobiography, #History, #United States, #Social Issues, #Juvenile Nonfiction, #Philosophy, #Heroes, #Juvenile Literature, #Conduct of life, #Virtues, #National characteristics, #Ethics & Moral Philosophy, #Heroes - United States
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Text copyright © 2010 by Barack Obama
Jacket art and interior illustrations copyright © 2010 by Loren Long
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
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eISBN: 978-0-375-98329-0
The illustrations in this book were created using acrylic on board.
November 2010
FIRST EDITION
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
To Michelle—whose fierce love and daily good sense have nourished such wonderful daughters
—B.O.
To my sons, Griff and Graham
—L.L.
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?
Have I told you that you are creative?
A woman named Georgia O’Keeffe
moved to the desert and painted petals, bone, bark.
She helped us see big beauty in what is small:
the hardness of stone and the softness of feather.
Have I told you that you are smart?
That you braid great ideas with imagination?
A man named Albert Einstein
turned pictures in his mind into giant advances in science,
changing the world
with energy and light.
Have I told you that you are brave?
A man named Jackie Robinson played baseball
and showed us all
how to turn fear to respect
and respect to love.
He swung his bat with the grace and strength of a lion
and gave brave dreams to other dreamers.
Have I told you that you are a healer?
Sitting Bull was a Sioux medicine man
who healed broken hearts and broken promises.
It is fine that we are different, he said.
“For peace, it is not necessary for eagles to be crows.”
Though he was put in prison,
his spirit soared free on the plains, and his wisdom
touched the generations.