In Winsome Bingham's 'The Walk,' a community bands together to head to the polls

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2024

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

Author Winsome Bingham was raised in a community that gathered together to vote. But as a kid, she didn't realize how important this practice was to her life. Illustrator E.B. Lewis had a different childhood experience with elections. His parents voted but would do so almost in secret. As a result, Lewis didn't become a voter until his late 20s. In their children's book, The Walk (A Stroll to the Poll), published in 2023, Bingham and Lewis hope to give kids insight into this democratic process. In the book, a child and her grandmother pick up friends and neighbors on their way to the polls, forming a civically-minded procession. In today's episode, NPR's Scott Simon introduces a conversation between the author and illustrator about how children learn by watching adults act and how voting can be a collective–rather than individual–experience.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong.
0:05.4	Growing up, my elementary school was a polling place, and it was kind of weird going with my parents to vote,
0:11.9	seeing my lunchroom re-contextualized, you know, seeing all these grownups wait in line in the place
0:17.3	where I waited in line for pizza on Fridays, but it's important to bring kids
0:21.7	along and expose them to this civic process. That's the idea behind today's book, The Walk. It's a
0:27.7	picture book by Winsome Bingham and E.B. Lewis, and NPR producers Samantha Balaban got them
0:32.4	together to talk about getting that idea across, not to the parents, but to the kids themselves. That's after the
0:39.5	break. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky
0:46.9	conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods. NPR reporters on
0:52.9	the ground bring you stories of real people,
0:55.8	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:59.7	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:05.1	In the walk, a child and her grandmother put on their jackets and hats and leave their house.
1:11.3	My granny is taking me on the walk.
1:13.9	Because leaders are not born, she says.
1:16.8	They're made through molding and modeling.
1:19.8	What's the walk? I ask.
1:22.7	You'll see.
1:23.7	And there's a few treasure souls coming to.
1:26.8	The pair stops at home stores, even the barbershop to pick up friends and neighbors.
1:32.0	The procession grows and grows as the group heads to the polls.
1:37.5	Time to vote.
	...

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