I spent much of my childhood listening to the sound of striving. It came in the form of bad music, or at least amateur music, coming up through the floorboards of my bedroom ­the plink plink plink of students sitting downstairs at my great-­aunt Robbie s piano, slowly and imperfectly learning their scales. My family lived in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, in a tidy brick bungalow that belonged to Robbie and her husband, Terry. My parents rented an apartment on the second floor, while Robbie and Terry lived on the first. Robbie was my mom s aunt and had been generous to her over many years, but to me she was kind of a terror. Prim and serious, she directed the choir at a local church and was also our community s resident piano teacher. She wore sensible shoes and kept a pair of reading glasses on a chain around her neck. She had a sly smile but didn t appreciate sarcasm the way my mom did. I d sometimes hear her chewing out her students for not having practiced enough or chewing out their parents for delivering them late to lessons.
Good night! she d exclaim in the middle of the day, with the same blast of exasperation someone else might say, Oh, for God s sake! Few, it seemed, could live up to Robbie s standards.
The sound of people trying, however, became the soundtrack to
our life. There was plinking in the afternoons, plinking in the evenings. Ladies from church sometimes came over to practice hymns. Under Robbie s rules, kids who took piano lessons were allowed to work on only one song at a time. From my room, I d listen to them attempting, note by uncertain note, to win her approval, graduating from Hot Cross Buns to Brahms s Lullaby, but only after many tries. The music was never annoying; it was just persistent. It crept up the stairwell that separated our space from Robbie s. It drifted through open windows in summertime, accompanying my thoughts as I played with my Barbies or built little kingdoms made out of blocks. The only break came

Michelle Robinson Obama served as First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Mrs. Obama started her career as an attorney at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she met her future husband, Barack Obama. She later worked in the Chicago mayor’s office, at the University of Chicago, and at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Mrs. Obama also founded the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an organization that prepares young people for careers in public service.
 
The Obamas currently live in Washington, D.C., and have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

"This warm memoir will connect with young readers and inspire them to value their own stories.   Kirkus Reviews, starred review