New book aims to inspire families to engage in voting process [Video]

ST PAUL, Minn. — A few thousand copies of a new children’s book are now on book store and library shelves nationwide, in time for election season.

Dr. Artika Tyner wrote the book, “Kwame Votes,” which she dedicates to St. Paul’s Rondo community. 

The author is also executive director of Planting People Growing Justice, a literary organization now in its eighth year. Tyner has written 35 books over the years and is partnering with Minneapolis-based Lerner Publisher Services to distribute “Kwame Votes” as part of a fall book collection.

The plot starts with Kwame voting in a student government election, and that leads to a larger conversation with his father and grandmother.

“The conversation isn’t about partisanship or a particular candidate,” Tyner told KARE 11 from the organization’s new Writing House in St. Paul. “It’s about the importance of issues that matter to the people that are there.”

By the end of …