Part of the chapter book series inspired by the number one New York Times bestseller She Persisted, by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger, this biography of Kamala Harris covers her life from childhood through her 2024 presidential run, ending just short of its conclusion. Author Raakhee Mirchandani emphasizes Harris’s work for social justice, noting that “Kamala learned from a very early age the importance of using your voice to spark change.”
Her immigrant parents instilled this value in Kamala and her sister, and Kamala tried to live by it, from being an “upstander, not a bystander” when a classmate was bullied, to representing “the citizens of the community and the victims, those who had been wronged and deserved justice,” to starting “a program that helped people charged with low-level, nonviolent crimes get back on their feet.” She fought for marriage equality, too, and the book spends several pages on the Proposition 8 marriage equality battle in California, noting that Harris performed the wedding ceremony for Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, the first same-sex couple to marry in California after Prop 8 was overturned.
We also see some of Harris’s failures, from putting too much salt into a batch of lemon bars as a child to failing the bar exam on her first try. These failures showed her how to learn from her mistakes and gain confidence, and “to put in her full effort, every time, in everything she did.”
While the book clearly sets up Harris as a positive role model, it is not blindly adulatory. For example, when discussing the truancy laws she supported as San Francisco district attorney, which “could fine or jail parents if their kids’ truancy continued to be a problem,” the book covers both sides of the issue, stating, “Some people thought it wasn’t the government’s place to be involved in school and family issues. Others thought the families who were being impacted by the rules were already struggling and this only added to their burdens. But Kamala believed that these laws were helping to prevent future crimes by strengthening communities and community members.”
Mirchandani does an excellent job of explaining concepts like political campaigns and conventions to young readers, but also infuses the book with a vibrant sense of Harris’s family and heritage. She observes, for example, that music was a big part of her family life growing up, and that her mother “would make okra, sometimes in an Indian style, with turmeric and mustard seeds, and sometimes as a gumbo with soul food flavoring, by adding dried shrimp and sausage.” Harris’s wedding to Doug Emhoff “honored both Kamala’s Indian heritage and Doug’s Jewish heritage … with traditions from both cultures,” and “Doug’s kids from his first marriage, Ella and Cole, called their stepmother Momala.” Now, Harris and her family enjoy Sunday dinners together, where “Cole picks the music and sets the table, Ella makes beautiful desserts, and Doug chops onions. Kamala makes the main dish—spaghetti Bolognese, Indian biryani, chickpeas with feta and herbs from her garden, fish tacos, homemade pizzas, or other recipes the family enjoys.”
Backmatter includes suggestions for how readers can persist like Harris, such as by being an upstander, running for leadership positions or otherwise serving one’s community, trying new recipes, learning about other pioneering women of color, and pronouncing names correctly. (The book notes that “Kamala’s name is often mispronounced, sometimes purposely to be mean to her.”)
For readers ready for more than a picture book biography of Harris, this is an excellent and inspiring next step.
