A New Chicago Book Teaches Kids Why We Vote

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Chicago Immigration Hub is your one-stop shop for the city's most comprehensive immigration coverage. Get news and resources from 15 local organizations, including WBEZ and the Chicago Sun Times, at suntimes.com/immigrationhub.

Sasha-Ann Simons (0:27)

Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.

Be sure to listen all the way through the podcast for a breakdown of the day's top local stories. But first, if you decide to take your child with you to the polls, it can be much more than just a quick errand. That outing might even be their first lesson in what it means to have a voice and make a difference. As we look ahead to November's midterm elections and Chicago's mayoral election in February, a new book is inviting more kids into that experience. Violet Goes Voting follows a young girl who tags along with her parents on election day, observes how community participation plays a role, and learns about who got the right to vote and when. In this episode of the pod, we'll hear from the Chicago author behind the children's story. At the table was L'Oreal Thompson Payton, owner of Zora's Place in Evanston, and author of Violet Goes Voting. So two years ago, I brought my daughter Violet with me. She was about two or three at the time to the presidential primary to vote with me. I just had this full circle moment of remembering when my parents would bring me and my sister with them to the polls when we were younger and passing down that tradition, but also hopefully inspiring her to, as she gets older, take very seriously her civic duty and remembering that people like us, Black Americans, didn't always have the right to vote, and so that we should exercise it whenever we have the chance. Sure. That experience of taking Violet to vote back in 2024, that created what sounds like nostalgia for you, going back to your childhood. What do you think the experience was like for her?

Oh, gosh. She loved it. Our next door neighbor in the book is one of the poll workers, Mr. Steve. That's what inspired the book, was looking at the experience through her eyes. She got her future voter sticker. She was very excited about it. I was trying to explain to her in toddler terms what was happening. Then of course, we took her with us in November for the general election and she was really excited about that as well.

So Mr. Steve is real. Okay. I thought it was just a character in the book. No, no.

SPEAKER_1 (2:51)

He's our next door neighbor.

Sasha-Ann Simons (2:52)

Yeah. Oh, that's great. So you've written several books for adults. You've written books for young readers. Why write this one about voting for such an early age group? Because this is for four to six-year-olds, right? Yes. This is an early reader. It is designed for them to be able to read on their own, as they're starting to learn how to read. And so I feel like that autonomy, even as they are little people, little readers, is important that they understand a bit about the history, of course, explaining it in kid-friendly terms appropriate for their age. But just so that they understand that even though you may be young and you may be small, you still can make a difference and you may not be able to legally vote in our elections the same way as adults, but you can pick up the trash in your neighborhood, you can contribute to a community garden, you can within your school once they get older, be a part of those student council elections and that sort of thing. So it's about instilling this since a civic duty at a young age that hopefully they'll carry on with them through the rest of their lives as well. Yeah. I love that you are mindful of their age as you're writing the book, but I'm also very appreciative of the fact that it was more than just, okay, well, here's your ballot, you check a name. You actually walk through the full process in this book in a toddler-friendly way, and you throw in history lessons, like the Voting Rights Act is mentioned in there. Yes. That is important. It's critical that they understand, and I mentioned again, in an age-appropriate manner, but we walk through, that was our process for the election day, leaving our house, walking up to the school, up the street. It's funny now when Violet reads the book herself, she looks at the different characters and mentions like, oh, that's my teacher, this is my soccer coach, that's our male person. It just brings it to life for them in a different way.