BOOK OF DECEMBER

                                                                           
Title         : Of Thee I Sing:
             A Letter to My Daughters
Author     : Barack Obama
Publisher : Knopf Books
Pages       : 40
Price        : $26
ISBN        : 978-0375835278

On sale for about a week, “Of Thee I Sing,” President Obama’s children’s picture book, an ode to 13 inspirational Americans written as a letter to his daughters, Malia and Sasha, is already on the best-seller lists in the world.

"Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters" is a tribute to 13 groundbreaking Americans, from the first president, George Washington, to baseball great Jackie Robinson to artist Georgia O'Keeffe. It will be released Nov. 16 by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, which will officially announce the new work Tuesday. Knopf declined to identify the other 10 subjects.

Obama is not the first president to write for young people. Jimmy Carter's "The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer" was published in 1995, more than a decade after he left office. More in line with Obama's effort, Theodore Roosevelt collaborated with Henry Cabot Lodge on "Hero Tales from American History," released in 1895, before Roosevelt was president.

Obama's book is illustrated by Loren Long, whose many credits include Watty Piper's classic "The Little Engine That Could," Randall de Seve's "Toy Boat" and Madonna's "Mr. Peabody's Apples." Long wrote and illustrated the children's stories "Otis" and "Drummer Boy." His cover design for "Of Thee I Sing" is a sunny impression of presidential daughters Sasha and Malia Obama walking their dog, Bo, along a grassy field.

Obama's 40-page book will have a first printing of 500,000 copies and a list price of $17.99. Both of Obama's previous works, the memoir "Dreams From My Father" and the policy book "The Audacity of Hope," are million sellers published by Crown, a division of Random House Inc.

While Mr. Obama may be the first sitting president to publish a children’s book, other White House occupants have made their own contributions to children’s literature.Long before she was secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote “Dear Socks, Dear Buddy,” a compilation of letters to the first pets of the Clinton administration.

While children’s books are generally safe territory, politically speaking, Mr. Obama attracted criticism from the right for his inclusion of Sitting Bull as one of 13 “groundbreaking Americans” honored in the book. A headline on Fox Nation, a Fox News online conservative forum, read, “Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Defeated U.S. General.”

Doug Wead, a former Bush family adviser and the author of “All the Presidents’ Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America’s First Families,” said in an e-mail that he wondered how Mr. Obama had managed to find time to write the book.

As for a possible motivation Mr. Obama might have had for writing it, Mr. Wead suggested, “He is wanting to build the dreams of young ladies.”

Review Text Courtesy: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com, http://abcnews.go.com
Link: http://my.barackobama.com