CHICAGO — Not sure what it is about children’s books that make life purer, more logical and possible, but U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s latest children’s book, “Just Help! How to Build a Better World” continues the tradition.
The Chicago Public Library hosted Sotomayor for a virtual conversation last week about the new release, which takes young readers on a journey through a neighborhood where kids, adults, activists, friends and strangers all help one another build a better world. Sotomayor answered questions from school-age children about her career and life with the help of Eve Ewing — author, sociologist, poet, playwright, former Chicago Public Schools middle school science teacher, and current assistant professor at the Crown Family School of Social Work at the University of Chicago.
“There’s such an interest and desire right now in exploring themes of social justice and racial healing,” said Chicago Public Library Commissioner Chris Brown. “It’s happening at a city level with Mayor (Lori) Lightfoot in ‘Together We Heal’ and this is our attempt at Chicago Public Library to bring in thought leaders and authors to be part of that citywide dialogue in exploring these topics that just became so much more apparent during the pandemic.”
Inspired by her family’s desire to help others, Sotomayor’s “Just Help!” shows youth it’s the little things, the everyday thoughts and actions that make a difference by having a domino effect in a community. Sotomayor’s previous children’s book, “Just Ask!,” published in 2019.
“I think most people think of service in grand ways,” Sotomayor said. “They think about being an elected official ... sort of grand positions, which they imagine do big things. But the reality is ... the world doesn’t runs because of those big-name positions. The world runs because of the everyday people who contribute to helping it go forward. ... If we think about all the ways in which people make our world better by just being nice, to me, to each other, and to others, that’s real service in my mind.”
We talked with Justice Sotomayor about her writing muse, literary legacy and what’s been helping her during the pandemic. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Q: How many books are you writing at any given time?
A: I only write one book at a time. That doesn’t mean I don’t have ideas overlapping. “Just Ask!” from inception to publication was over 2½ years, but that’s because so much else was going on in the interim. After “Just Ask!” I started to think about what I wanted to write about next. Over the last six years, I had actively been involved in civic education for children because I became a member of the board of directors of the icivics.org organization. ... My work there about civic participation and ensuring children are taught about the importance of civic education in their life from as young an age as possible, that for me, was the next book. “Just Help!” was easy because it came from something I was personally passionate about. I understood in talking to kids about civic participation, how few of them understood how much they could change the world. This book is showing them that.
Q: The inspiration behind your latest book is fueled by your passion for civics education. Did the pandemic or recent racial reckoning factor in at all for the impetus of this book?
A: It all figured in — all of it came at the same time, meaning as I was thinking about what the next book was, there was the fact that we are dealing in very partisan times in the world and times where the civil discourse has gotten very difficult. It was clear to me that this was a timely book, given what is happening around the world. I should say in America, but it’s also happening in the world as you know.
Q: You reiterate self-reliance and passion for community throughout your books. Is there a favorite age group that you prefer writing for?
A: For me, the younger that I can make a mark on a child, the more hope there is for the child to be impassioned and inspired to make a difference. The statistics are pretty telling that if children receive a quality civics education, they’re more likely than not to finish school — whether it’s high school, college or professional school. There’s research studies on this: Kids who receive a quality civics education become greater leaders, they tend to get better jobs. Inspiring kids is the way to create a future for them. And so the earlier I can get them, the better.
Q: Is there a particular person, place, or thing that has helped you get through this pandemic?
A: Yes, but it’s for reasons that some people might not find happy. The fall of 2020, my mother took ill, and I spent most of that next seven months with her in Florida. She passed away this past summer. It was heartbreaking for me. You may know from my writings how important my mother was and is to me but the fact that I could be there for her because we were working virtually, was a personal gift to me. It gave me personal time with my mother that I might not have been able to otherwise give her since I’m on the go all the time. I spent some really quality time with her. In that regard, I got through the pandemic in a way that I really wish I hadn’t had to — but the natural sequence of life, that at some point, I would lose my mom — I’m just glad that, I could spend time with her.
Q: Share more about your writing muse and the literary legacy you want to leave.
A: Everything I write, the very first question I have is, “what’s the purpose of what I’m writing?” Who’s my audience? What’s it aiming to do? The second question is, “what’s the theme I’m going to use to accomplish that purpose?” Once I have identified that, the writing for me just flows. I can’t say it writes itself. But once I identified purpose and theme of how to get that purpose out, the writing structures itself. That’s the thing with “Just Help” — it was going through a day showing different ways in which children could participate in making the world better. It starts with me packing a shopping bag, but the very next vignette is me getting on the school bus. And the school bus driver, helping me with my bag up the steps and getting on the bus and having two friends move over because they saw there were no seats for me. I wanted children to understand that building the world should happen step by step. It doesn’t have to be just big things and each of the vignettes play on that.
Q: And the legacy part?
A: I often tell children, given a position as a Supreme Court justice, where I’m going to write opinions that will be in the legal history books, in reading those opinions, they’ll see a little bit of who I am in my personality. When I write an opinion, it reflects some of who I am. The people who read them are looking to them to help educate their legal reasoning. They’re not reading them to necessarily get to know me as a person. My books give me the legacy of actually staying alive. So long as there is a child alive who met me or read one of my books and was inspired to do something because of that book, for me, that’s a greater legacy than a Supreme Court opinion. I tell people, every child who reads one of my books or listens to me talk who gets affected by what I’m saying and helps them navigate their life in a better way, helps them deal with whatever’s happening in their life in a way they might not have otherwise thought about — that’s my bigger legacy. That’s why I write these books. That’s why I spend time talking to kids. Because I want them to understand how important they are and how much power they have, power to do better than I’ve been able to do because I expect every one of them to accomplish more than I have and I really want them to know that.
