Dream Big Dreams

Dream Big Dreams

Juvenile nonfiction
"This book represents some of the moments I captured of
President Obama throughout his presidency. The big moments and the
small moments. Fun moments. Moments during a crisis. Moments of
laughter. Moments when I was hiding tears behind the viewfinder.
Intimate family moments. Symbolic moments and, yes, historic moments.
I have had the extraordinary privilege of being the person in
the room for eight years, visually documenting President Obama for
history. I hope you will see in my photographs the same honor and
integrity of this man that I witnessed every day."
Pete Souza was the Chief Official White House Photographer
during the Obama presidency. It was not an easy job, requiring nearly
constant ability to not miss any important shots. Souza describes
documenting the leader of one of the world's most powerful nations as
"an all-consuming, 24/7, always-on-call, no-vacation, no-sick-days,
smartphone-always-vibrating kind of job." Over the course of eight
years he took two million photographs. (That's over 684 a day.)
"Along the way, I became his friend. And he became my friend.
How could you not when you spend so much time together. Did I get on
his nerves? Certainly. Did he get on my nerves? One always learns
to say no."
In Dream Big Dreams Souza gives younger readers a delightful
look at the life of a president. Rather than the deadly dull pictures
you see in history books--document signing, speech making--there are
pictures and accompanying narratives kids will find interesting. Some
of them are:
*Obama heading to a basketball court engaged in animated conversation
with a group of teenage boys;
*Obama pretending to chat with a life size red Lego person;
*Obama wearing a bejeweled tiara as he poses with a Brownie troop at a
STEM event;
and *all the warm family pictures portraying him as husband and father.
I was an early newspaper reader. I grew up in a household where
children were seen, heard, and expected to have opinions. I also
never felt like I could trust teachers who seemed to really believe
that hiding under desks would save us if Russia bombed Massachusetts.
Of all the photographs from the Kennedy presidency, I only clearly
remember one: JFK playing with his kids when they dropped by his
office.
On a personal note, my assessment class is over. Last Tuesday all
five small groups presented our reports in class. They were all very
interesting. Then last Thursday my group got together with Lisa Morin
and shared our findings with her. She was very pleased with our
report. She said that we gave her valuable information and ideas for
new directions to pursue. I know that we will integrate what we
learned into our scholastic and professional lives.
I think the project was the most enjoyable part of the class. I
worked with seriously awesome people who went the extra mile to make
sure our work was the best possible. It really tied what we were
learning together in a way that a cram, regurgitate, forget exam
couldn't have. And it was relevant. It will actually be used.
I learned so much in that class that I will put to use in further
classes and work. It was the intellectual equivalent of a top drawer
Sears tool kit.
A great big shout out goes out to Leah, out professor, Lisa who
provided us with our assessment opportunity, and my dream team
teammates: Cam, Kayla, Alex A., and Victoria.
jules hathaway



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