Who is Kamala Harris? by Kirsten Anderson and illustrated by Manuel Gutiérrez is part of the Who HQ series of books that cover who was, what was, where is, etc. The title was published by Penguin Workshop on January 19, 2021. Penguin Randomhouse recommends the book for ages 8-12. While the Who HQ books are wildly popular in elementary buildings, I have learned that their popularity does not stop when students leave to head to middle school. I have 5th and 6th graders who want to read them for facts or enjoyment, and I have 7th and 8th graders who check them out with a gleam of nostalgia in their eyes. I had recently been considering ordering more of these books for my biography section, and then I stumbled across this recent title of Who Is Kamala Harris? in my local public library. I was intrigued, because 1) I had never read one of the Who Is/Was titles and 2) she’s the first female vice president. The sections are not numbered and hit the highlights only – Who Is Kamala Harris?, Shyamala and the Girls, For the People, DA, First and First, and Veep with a section for Timelines and Bibliography at the end. The book opens with a quote from Vice President Harris and an overview of her current position and the timeliness of her being featured. One thing that stood out to me in this introduction was that some people were thrilled by her being chosen to be VP and why and some had mixed reactions and reasons why. This made me think that the series would be a little more upfront and honest with youth than I had thought it might be. Biographies from when I was a child only told the good of what people had done and left out any flaws. I think it’s important that biographies for any age depict both the strengths and the flaws of the people they are about. This became a trend throughout the book.
The short informational sections told in chronological order starting with her birth and ending with the announcement of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris winning the 2020 election. There is an aside with a box to explain what an HBCU is and some illustrations throughout. The biographical text is followed by a Timeline of Kamala Harris’s Life starting in 1964 and ending in 2020. This is followed by a Timeline of the World in the back starts in 1964. These events are largely unrelated to the events in the book and Vice President Harris’s life. Having worked with different middle grade and middle school age groups, I know it is sometimes difficult for them to contextualize when events happened in history in relation to others, so perhaps that is the goal of this timeline. This is followed by a Bibliography with links and articles. I appreciate that links are included and hyperlinked in the eBook edition. These could be used for further research by readers who wanted more information. The articles linked in the bibliography that I was able to access without a subscription were:
Readers interested in biographies, politics, or people who were groundbreaking firsts will be interested in this story. With the recency of Vice President Harris taking the office in addition to her being the first woman in that office, I would think there would be a lot of interest in this title. While I have sought out other titles on each recent president and vice president and will continue to seek out some that are at a higher level or go into more detail, however, this title has a lot of information in concise chunks that it speeds through with brevity. It gives a strong and accurate overview of a person. Truthfully, I had underestimated this Who Is/Was series, knowing that it was mostly circulated in elementary and juvenile collections, but it does have a place in middle schools as well. As the circulations of the copies that in the library I work in prove. I will seek out more of this series to add to the collection in my library.
2 Comments
Whitley Abell
9/21/2021 10:22:38 am
I was so excited to see you review this book. I immediately submitted it as a purchase suggestion for my library when I saw it was being published. I, too, love recommending the Who HQ series to kiddos, but have only ever read one myself (the Stonewall Riots).
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Abi Avery
10/2/2021 06:59:13 pm
I haven’t read any of the Who HQ books either, so I’m really glad to see you review them. It lets me know that they are just as good as they are popular! They’re honestly some of the only biographies that circulate from our juvenile collection. I’m also very excited because they’re launching a graphic novel series as well this fall, which I’m sure is going to be a big hit!
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