I love Doreen Rappaport's picture book biographies. I've already reviewed Helen's Big World about Helen Keller, Frederick's Journey about Frederick Douglass, and To Dare Mighty Things about Theodore Roosevelt. All of them are in a large square format with the subject's face done large on the cover with no title to interrupt. (These are the books I reach for when my library's doing a "bookface" challenge!) There are always big, beautiful illustrations, and quotations from the biography subject highlighted on every spread.

I might not have chosen to review this particular biography, but my birthday is Flag Day, June 14th, and there's another famous person who's making a fuss for having that birthday - so folks on the internet have declared it Obama Appreciation Day. I can get behind that! So my plan is to post this review on my birthday - though it might be somewhat later if I'm too busy celebrating.

This biography of Barack Obama fits the winning pattern. It tells about his growing-up years in Hawaii and Indonesia, and how he developed a "hunger to make the world a better place." There's a lot leading up to his run for the presidency, and then a summary of his many accomplishments as president.

Reading this today is especially poignant:

Barack believed America's greatest strength was the diversity of its people. More women and people of color were hired to work for his administration. He nominated Sonia Sotomayor as the first Latinx Supreme Court Justice and nominated Elena Kagan to be the fourth woman justice. He supported same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBTQ Americans to serve in the country's armed forces.

It ends with a quotation that we can take hope in today:

I am the eternal optimist. I think that over time people respond to civility and rational arguments.

May we get a president like that again some day.