[
Editor's Note: Powell's is pleased to welcome the pint-sized contributors of Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: Kids' Letters to President Obama to our blog for the next month! Ranging in age from 6 to 14, the kids are all students of 826 National —
a non-profit literacy organization, founded in part by Dave Eggers, with seven chapters countrywide. The book is a compilation of letters written to President Obama shortly after he was elected. We'll be presenting the original letters that were published in the book, plus some updates from our mini-pundits on how our new president is measuring up so far. Get a copy of Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country at 30% off for a limited time.]
Original letter by Renea Harris-Peterson, age 9:
Dear President Barack Obama,
I'm Renea. I'm nine years old. I go to school at Greenwood Elementary School in Seattle. I'm a straight-A student. I like art and math.
I think you should focus on education, global warming, and the wars.
Education is important so kids can get jobs like you did and so they can get the right amount of change when they go to the store because people use math every day. Without school, people would just sit around and watch TV all day. There should be more art in school — plays and stuff — because creativity is important.
Global warming is bad. As president, it would help if you helped create more park-and-rides and public transit, like trains and bike-sharing programs. Also, wars are unhelpful — I think you should stop them, if you can.
Good-bye,
Renea Harris-Peterson
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Renea writes for Powells.com:
Dear President Barack Obama,
Congratulations, you have been president for almost three months already. I hope you are enjoying living in the White House. In my last letter, I gave you some ideas about how to make the country a better place to live. I think you are doing a pretty good job so far, but I thought maybe you could use some more tips.
1. You should keep thinking of other kinds of energy we could use for cars. That way we will use less oil and stop global warming.
2. In case you forgot, you should still stop the wars.
3. Please raise money for schools and pay the janitors a lot so they can make them cleaner.
4. Lastly, I think you should get two dogs and name them Jippie and Lucky.
That's pretty much all the advice I have right now, but I'll let you know right away if I think of anything else.
Your friend and advisor,
Renea Harris-Peterson