An interview with Maya Soetoro-Ng, author of Ladder to the Moon and sister of President Barack Obama

A good friend just lost her mother. One day, she’ll make a wonderful mother herself. But as she mourns the passing of her mother, the thought of her mom not being there for her own child to love and learn from is inescapable.

Enter Maya Soetoro-Ng’s incredible book.

Ladder to the Moon was inspired by her daughter asking questions about the grandmother she never met, Ann Dunham.

Maya’s mother and mother of President Barack Obama, Dunham was a storyteller above all else, says Maya, with enormous compassion and empathy. She inspired Maya to be a teacher.

Maya’s unquestionably a Book Person and she graciously answered some questions for RIF’s blog. Thank you, Maya.

Books — like your Ladder to the Moon — can be great tools for introducing children to new places and cultures. Was there a book you remember playing that kind of role in your own life?

To be sure, our mother gave us a fine daily dose of multicultural literature — the tales that carve the textures of childhood around the world.

I’ve also always loved books that, like Ladder to the Moon, are about taking journeys through faraway worlds — both real and imagined — via hidden portals and passageways:  books like “The Secret Garden,” the Lord of the Rings trilogy, “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Wizard of Oz,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

These books reflect the themes of growth through travel and courage in the face of difference and the unknown.  They are about the fact that worlds and peoples that seem very different are often more similar than we imagined and that we must rely on one another and learn to trust in order to survive and thrive.

As an expert in international education, any thoughts on how we use books in the classroom compared to Indonesia or other places you’ve studied?

I think that many American educators are doing a fine job of using literature to begin projects in inquiry and empathy.  Methods like P4C (Philosophy for Children) and SAC (Structured Academic Controversy) often use literature as a starting point to help young people mine their own opinions and presumptions and then engage in critical thinking.

Students are writing and reading historical fiction in order to connect with and understand the past from more than one perspective.  Literature is also being used to understand the umbilical stories of other cultures or subcultures within our country.  Many other countries are looking to the United States as model for how to use literature effectively.

The challenge in many countries, in addition to literacy, is getting international literature in translation in local languages.  In our globalized era, translators have become ever more important!

E-books, old school books or books in any form?

Books in any form are valuable.  I believe in multiplying the number of access roads into poetry, prose, and nonfiction in order to reach people who might otherwise be hard or impossible to reach.  I also believe that new media presents us with powerful new modes of storytelling and public expression. Two caveats:

1. Let us not forget the value of a beautiful picture book to be held and shared in bed or beneath a tree.  An E-book doesn’t work for every meaningful literary experience.
2. Let us be sure to help our children (and theirs) in navigating through the myriad choices available to them, so that they are better able to make choices that count and that might help bring them joy, beauty, meaning, or strength.

What does being a Book Person mean to you?

It means being able to imagine any future. It means being able to float above and fly beyond any prison.  It means being able to embrace many truths. It means being able to connect with any other.

[Editor’s Note: Are you a Book Person? Take the pledge today.]

You play Scrabble on the iPad with your brother. Who wins?

We’re evenly matched.  In other circumstances and times, he would probably beat me more often, being the clever guy that he is, but I’ve got him distracted with leading the nation so I can hold my own.

Read more about Maya and Ladder to the Moon on the Candlewick Press site and like Maya on Facebook.

posted by Jay

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Tags: Ladder to the Moon, Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama, Sister