Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Gr 7 Up–Travels through both urban spaces in the U.S. and the countryside of Africa in his formative years shaped Obama into the man who would become the 44th U.S. President. This memoir, adapted from Dreams from My Father for the young adult audience, shows Obama growing from a child raised by a single mother and her parents into the teen “Barry” who smoked marijuana and cut class, then into a community activist and brilliant student. As the title suggests, the tale focuses on the subject’s quest to learn about his absent Kenyan father, whom he only met once. It gives examples of how Obama, though raised in a predominantly white world (as well as in Hawaii, and briefly Indonesia), goes from being a biracial kid struggling with identity to a 20-something proud Black man. He eventually becomes a community organizer in the Southside of Chicago. Obama’s journey to Kenya becomes an odyssey, leading him to immediate family, distant cousins, and stepmothers. He travels through the African continent to big cities, small towns, and countryside. Young adults who read this book, a quick read and less abstract than the adult version, will find bits and pieces of themselves among the pages. The former president demonstrates his well-known ability as a wordsmith and a storyteller in this narrative.