The Ladder to the Moon is a recently published children’s picture book written by Maya Soetoro-Ng, the President Obama’s half sister. The late Ann Dunham, the mother of Obama and Soetoro-Ng, is a central character in the book.
The book tells a fairytale about Grandma Annie taking little girl Suhaila to climb on the moon by a golden ladder. They look back at the earth and see the natural and human disasters happening. They help people everywhere to heal and to get onto the moon. The illustration in the book gives people natural, tender and warm feeling. The tale carries the love and the spirit that bonds a family through generations and connects people in different cultural backgrounds.
As part of a book tour, Soetoro-Ng met with kids and spoke at Tenley-Friendship Library in Washington, D.C. on April 15.
Soetoro-Ng said the book was inspired by the life and spirit of her mother and her daughter Suhaila’s question – “What was Grandma Annie like?” “She is like a moon, full, soft and curious. Your grandma would wrap her arms around the whole world if she could.” This becomes the beginning of the book.
Soetoro-Ng said she wrote this book to help her daughters and the President’s daughters to get to know about their grandma who passed away 16 years ago.
What she wants the most is her mother and daughter to meet and love each other. “Imagine an evening spent between my mother and my daughter, able to think back 4-5 lessons she had passed on to my daughter. Learn from the past and know what to do tomorrow because Grandma had so much to tell her.”
Soetoro-Ng said if people would think about the world from more than one point of view, the world will be more peaceful. The beginning of the book shows the view of the moon from the earth. The back of the book shows a view of the earth from the moon.
Soetoro-Ng said that she has her students to debate on subject from one perspective and then turn around to debate from the other side. “I think it’s very helpful for the young people. Then they can’t get stuck in one point of view. I think the world will be more peaceful if people can think from the other’s point of view,” she said.
Soetoro-Ng said, “We live in a globalized world, we need to remind our children to be brave, to get to know each other despite the superficial difference. We have the same hopes and fears. We are interconnected, and need to help each other with basic human kindness. We are able to shape our own story.”
The book Ladder to the Moon is illustrated by the artist Yuyi Morales who came from Mexico. Soetoro-Ng said the book is the shared vision of the author and the artist.
“When I saw her illustration, I felt so amazed, so connected to her. That’s exactly what I had seen in my mind. I don’t have the ability to take what’s in my head to put on the paper, but grateful for the artists like her was willing to bring pictures to my story. Magically, she took several paintings from her childhood stories, too,” she said.
Soetoro-Ng told the crowd, “I showed the initial draft without illustration to the President. He said, ‘It was sweet. It captured our mother’s spirit nicely, and many of her gifts.’ He also saw the illustration and said they were lovely, lovely.”
