Interview: Second Lady Jill Biden Talks About Her New Picture Book

Inspired by real family events, and told through the eyes of her granddaughter Natalie, Second Lady Jill Biden’s Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops (S & S, 2012) tells the story of what life was like when her son Beau was deployed to Iraq for a year.

Readers follow the experience of Natalie and her younger brother, Hunter, as they learn to cope with missing their dad and find comfort in the kindness of their teachers, neighbors, and entire community. Biden will donate all of the book’s proceeds to charities that support military families and children.

Your picture book addresses a subject that many of young children don’t read about.

A lot of American families really don’t know a military family, so they wouldn’t understand the experience. As a teacher, I thought one of the best ways to educate both adults and children would be through a children’s book because the adult would read it to them and the children would learn about it. Hopefully they will be inspired to say, “You know, I want to help a military family. I wonder what I can do?” That’s why I added the backgrounder to offer suggestions that children, parents, adults, and educators can use and to inspire all Americans to do an act of kindness for a military family.

You say 1.3 million school age kids have a parent in the military. What are some things we can do to help these families?

All I can say is go to your strengths. So for instance, your children’s school could adopt a unit and send letters. Mine is a National Guard family, so if there’s someone in your community or in your school [with a parent in the National Guard], you can send over pizza. One of the most heartwarming things that Beau’s friends did was during a snowstorm. He went over and shoveled the driveway for Hallie, my daughter-in-law. He never said a word. He just did it. Bake a tin of cookies, and take it over and say, “We know you’re going through a tough time.” If you see a service member in an airport, buy them coffee. If you do something with your own kids, then they’ll start to think about it. And that’s what I’m trying to do—get in our culture. These military families are protecting our country, so people should naturally think to help military families.

What’s the most touching thing someone did for you during Beau’s absence?

One of the most comforting things to me was when complete strangers would come up to me and tell me that they were praying for my son. I think that really touched my heart. The hardest times were his birthday or when I packed his Christmas stocking, and I packed all his favorite things. We always have Christmas Eve dinner at our house—where there are about 25 Bidens—and looking down at the table and not seeing him there was hard. Election night was tough because we were so happy, but we had [Beau] on Skype. We walked out with the laptop and took it as far as we could as we walked onto the stage because we wanted him to be there and be a part of it.

Tell us about the national initiative Joining Forces, which you and First Lady Michelle Obama started to encourage Americans to support military families.

When Michelle and I were both out campaigning, we met so many military families. We decided that we needed to raise awareness and inform Americans about the military and show them just how strong and resilient they are. We expanded that into all kinds of things. For instance, our administration came up with a tax credit for hiring veterans, because as you know, many of these soldiers come back with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). We’re trying to get into schools. Teachers’ colleges have committed to putting it into their curriculum, and doctors and nurses have tried to get the word out about PTSD and to talk to families about it. So, I think it’s really spreading into so many areas. There are many ways that we’re trying to help military families because it’s our sacred obligation to take care of them. We’ve ended the war in Iraq, and we’re going to end the war in Afghanistan, but these problems are going to exist for years to come.

Did you intentionally avoid the subject of death?

Yes, even though death is realistic, I didn’t want this book to [address] that. I just wanted to raise awareness and what people could do. I wanted to educate and inspire. Those were the two goals I had. As a teacher, I felt it was important to teach the children. And I’m really hoping that this gets into the classrooms and into the school libraries so that children learn about this at an early age-and it creates an awareness at an early age. Natalie was five, so I think it’s perfect for younger children.

What are things schools and librarians do?

I recently visited a school in Virginia where 40 percent of the kids were military families and 60 percent were not. What they did was put up a bulletin board and celebrated the families who were in the military. These children feel such a sense of pride about what their moms and dads do, so I think that school librarians can make bulletin board and put books out for kids about the military—not just around Memorial or Veteran’s Day—but throughout the year because the children in schools deal with this each and every day. When you read my book, you can sense Natalie’s anxiety about her father not being there. One of the things that Natalie’s teacher did was hang a picture of her dad’s unit so that every single day as the children walked into the classroom—especially Natalie—they would see her daddy and everyone knew that Natalie’s daddy was at war.

Beau’s absence seems to have been more difficult for Natalie rather her younger brother Hunter.

Hunter definitely had an awareness, and he missed his daddy. But he reacted like a three- or four-year-old child would. The good thing is we have Skype now, and they would Skype with their dad. So they kept up with him and they would see him. Physically seeing him was reassuring.

I heard that Natalie chose the illustrator, Raúl Colón?

Simon & Schuster offered several illustrators, and I was looking through them and I thought, “This is Natalie’s story, so I think she should be the one to pick the illustrator.” So we scanned the pictures and sent them through the computer, and she looked at them and she was the one who chose Raúl. I think it’s the best choice. I love the softness of it. I love the feeling of the book, and I think he did such a wonderful job.

What’s the most important thing you want kids to take away from this book?

I want them to really have an education about military families, what they go through, some of the stresses. Conversely, I want them to see the strengths that they possess—and their resilience. To see what they do for our country and to create an appreciation for what military families do for us.