Books
Amanda Gorman’s New Children’s Book Is All About Being The Change You Want To See
“I wrote this book because I believe every child has the ability to make a difference and that they are the leaders of the future.”
Amanda Gorman, the nation’s youngest poet laureate, who dazzled millions with her impactful piece at President Joe Biden's inauguration earlier this year, now has a children’s picture book. Last week, the 23-year-old aspiring presidential hopeful debuted her book Change Sings: A Children's Anthem on Sept. 21 and it’s already shot up to the number-one spot on the New York Times bestseller list.
Gorman’s new children’s book tells the story of a young girl who“leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes — big or small — in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves,” according to the synopsis on Penguin Random House. Illustrated by New York Times bestselling illustrator, Loren Long, Gorman tweeted that Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem was a project that was “four years in the making”.
“I wrote this book because I believe every child has the ability to make a difference and that they are the leaders of the future,” Gorman told People. “I hope readers will enjoy Change Sings and remember that all of us have the power to change the world.”
Change Sings is available now on Penguin Random House, Amazon, Target, and Walmart for $12.75 hardcover.
This children’s book follows Gorman’s recent No. 1 New York Times bestseller poetry collection, The Hill We Climb, which includes her inaugural poem with the same name. Her next book, Call Us What You Carry, is scheduled to be released on Dec. 7.
In Variety’s recent Power of Women issue, Gorman talked about her “shame and guilt” of having a speech impediment as a child and how her mother encouraged her to overcome it. “And as I’ve grown up I understand that, as always, my mother was 100% right. My superpower is my voice,” she told Variety, adding that the societal themes she wrote about in Change Sings focus on not being afraid to use your voice as a vessel to make the necessary changes in the world, no matter how big or small.
“I feel that often when people are afraid of change, it’s not necessarily change that we are afraid of. It’s powerlessness. It’s helplessness,” she told Variety. “It’s feeling that we have no agency to control the changes that are occurring.”
