Chicago author’s book inspired by Kamala Harris’ vice-presidential speech gains new relevance
CHICAGO — The Democratic National Convention has been building toward Thursday’s closing appearance by Vice President Kamala Harris.
She will be the first Black woman and the first Southeast Asian woman to be nominated for president by a major party.
A Chicago-area author used Harris as his muse for a book written after the last presidential election. Little did he know that the book’s subject would take on a new significance in this election year.
Malcolm Newsome started writing children’s books when he couldn’t find the kinds of stories he wanted to tell his two young girls.
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“As I had young kids and started to create stories for them on the fly as a way to engage and have fun,” he said. “But then the more I would look around for books, I wasn’t seeing the stories I was really excited to share with them.”
His latest work, “Sydnee’s Big Speech,” is a picture book about perseverance. A young girl named Sydnee overcomes her fear speaking in class. She has big ideas, but the words won’t come out. She asks her dad for help.
“Then it’s a moment for her dad to sort of come alongside her and say, ‘Hey, you mind if I show you a couple of things?’” Newsome said.
The first thing her father shows her is Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential victory speech from 2020.
“There’s a moment in that speech that has always resonated with me, that stuck deep in my heart where she says, ‘Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in the way that others might not,’” Newsome said.
The book was written four years ago and published by Harper Collins in February of this year. It now has new relevance as Harris now poised to become the first Black and first Southeast Asian woman to be nominated for president.
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“In a way, it’s a bit surreal. When I wrote this book, it was through the lens of seeing the potential that Kamala Harris could be president and then also seeing the potential that there are lots of other young girls watching her that now see themselves as potentially being president,” Newsome said.
Newsome hopes the book resonates with young girls even more this week wo will see they have the ability to tell their unique stories, with their own voices.
No matter how it looks on the surface, you can do great things, you can do the biggest and best things,” he said.
Newsome says the book was inspired by his own mother Edith Newsome the first Black woman elected to Waukegan’s City Council.
The Democratic National Convention in Chicago concluded Thursday night with Vice President Kamala Harris accepting the party’s nomination to the land’s highest office.
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Chicago has hosted Democrats 12 times, the last being nearly 30 years ago when President Bill Clinton was nominated for a second term.
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