KAMALA RAISED HER HAND

A rapturous tribute to the “first Black American, first woman, and first South Asian American vice president in American history.”

Mirchandani confines this celebratory biographical sketch largely to a set of highlight-reel glimpses of times when Kamala Harris figuratively raised her hand, an act that the author defines expansively as “showing everyone—and yourself—that your voice is power. And that you are powerful.” So, having learned about the gesture on Civil Rights marches with her parents, she “stood up” to a bully in kindergarten (though precisely what this entailed is never made clear), wrote anti-war letters to President Nixon, organized a children’s protest when she was 12, and went on to law school. Later, she stood for various political offices, including, as a tacked-on finale notes, “when America needed a president—and Americans needed hope,” in the summer of 2024. In textured cloth and cut-paper collage scenes, Kelkar shows Harris raising her hand as a child, in court, on the campaign trail, and while taking an oath of office; a final scene shows her waving to a silhouetted crowd that’s waving back. “You aren’t just the future,” the author writes, addressing readers in a personal afterword; “you are the present, too.” She closes with a photo of her own young daughter, hand raised, dressed in a “Kamala” shirt.

High on inspirational language, somewhat vague on specific facts; still, demand will be brisk.