For TessJ.O.
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Text copyright 2010, 2012, 2017 by Penguin Random House LLC. Illustrations copyright 2010 by John OBrien. Cover illustration copyright 2010 by Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Published by Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. PENGUIN and PENGUIN WORKSHOP are trademarks of Penguin Books Ltd. WHO HQ & Design is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC. Printed in the USA.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009019369
Ebook ISBN 9781101171127
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Table of Contents
Who Is Barack Obama?
There once was a young man who was a student at Columbia University. He had never lived in New York City before. It was 1981 and, for a year, he spent his free time walking all around the city. He was not only interested in seeing famous sights like the Statue of Liberty that many tourists visited, but he also wanted to visit other parts of the city, like Harlem. Harlem is a famous neighborhood where many black families have lived since the 1920s. The young man visited historic churches and the Apollo Theater. He heard Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, give a speech.
On his long walks, the young man kept looking at people. He hoped to find where he fit in. The young mans name was Barack Obama. Tall and skinny with an Afro, he was half white and half black. Often he felt he didnt belong anywhere. He was unsure of his future. What would he make of his life?
Back in 1981, if someone had said, Guess who will be president of the United States in less than thirty years, Barack would never have said, Me.
Yet on January 20, 2009, that is exactly what happened. Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th president.
Imagine how surprised that college kid would be to find himself living in the White House!
Chapter 1
Born in Paradise
Hawaii is a group of islands that lie in the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii became a state in 1959, the same year as Alaska. The closest state to Hawaii is California, but they are more than two thousand miles apart.
The weather in Hawaii is beautiful all year long. Tropical flowers make the air smell sweet. There are palm trees and beautiful beaches. Even in the early morning, surfers are out riding the waves. They go surfing before school starts.
Honolulu is the capital of Hawaii. This is where Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961.
Baracks first name means blessed in Swahili, an African language. Barack was his fathers name, too. But neither of the babys parents called him Barack. He was always Barry.
Barrys father was from Kenya, a country in Africa. He had come to Hawaii to study at the University of Hawaii. He met an eighteen-year-old girl who was a student there, too. She lived in Honolulu with her parents. Her name was Stanley Ann Dunham.
Why Stanley?
Stanley was her fathers name. He had wanted a boy. So he named his only child, Stanley. But she was known as Ann to her friends.
Ann and Barack met, fell in love, and got married. There is nothing unusual about that except this happened in 1961. Ann was white; Barack was black. Back then, very few people of different races decided to marry each other. In fact, in some states, it was illegal!
Anns parents were fairly open-minded people. They accepted their new son-in-law. He was smart and interesting. And they adored their chubby baby grandson. Little Barry grew up calling them Gramps and Toot. (In Hawaiian, tutu means grandmother.)
In Hawaii, many people have brown skin, so Barry didnt look or feel any different. At the beach, Gramps liked to fool tourists by saying Barry was the great-grandson of a famous Hawaiian king!
When Barry was two years old, his parents split up. His father wanted to study at Harvard University in Massachusetts. That was more than 5,000 miles away from Hawaii. Eventually Barack wanted to return to Kenya with Ann and Barry. But Ann did not want to live in a small village in Africa. So she stayed in Hawaii with her young son.
Barry was ten years old before he saw his father again. He had photos of Barack as well as the stories that his mom and grandparents told him about his father. But it wasnt enough. Barry felt as if there was a big hole in his heart.
Chapter 2
Lolo and Maya
In 1965, Barrys mother married a man named Lolo Soetoro. (In Hawaiian slang, the word lolo means crazyGramps thought that was a riot.) Lolo came from Indonesia, a country in the Pacific made up of many islands. Lolo had been studying at the University of Hawaii. Thats where he and Ann met.
Little Barry liked Lolo right away. When Lolo returned to Indonesia, Ann and Barry went, too. Ann was ready to move away from her parents and become more independent.
INDONESIA
MORE THAN 17,000 ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC AND INDIAN OCEANS MAKE UP THE COUNTRY OF INDONESIA. ONLY ABOUT SIX THOUSAND OF THESE ISLANDS HAVE PEOPLE LIVING ON THEM. THE CLIMATE IS TROPICAL WITH WET SEASONS. EXCEPT FOR BRAZIL, INDONESIA HAS A WIDER VARIETY OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS THAN ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
