Reading Corner: Our Enduring Spirit

Our Enduring Spirit: President Barack Obama's First Words to America, illustrated by Greg Ruth. This book is simply stunning. The text, adapted from President Obama's January 20, 2009 Inaugural Address, is brought to life by stirring illustrations.


I could see this book being used in a variety of content areas. It could be used as an example in a speech class of how to craft a speech for a specific occasion and audience, as well as how to choose vivid word pictures. Of course this could be an excellent book as part of a history study in American Presidents. The illustrator's note at the back of the book also makes an outstanding resource for an art class; as demonstrated in his illustrations and explained in his comments, artist Greg Ruth shows how art simultaneously records history, promotes ideas, and expresses feelings. I could even see this book being used in an undergraduate marketing class. As illustrator Greg Ruth explains in his illustrator's note, this book was created out of his and his publisher's mutual enthusiasm for Obama's presidential election. Their political agenda packaged in a beautiful picture book is a prime sample of marketing—winsome, disarming, persuasive, memorable.