: [POST-BROADCAST CLARIFICATION: Isaac Cramer wrote this book with the Charleston County Public Library.]
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Early voting began this week in South Carolina. A local election official there is also celebrating a different milestone - the release of his first children's book. Here's NPR's Miles Parks.
MILES PARKS, BYLINE: Isaac Cramer says kids inherently understand voting, because they're kind of doing it all the time.
ISAAC CRAMER: They're making choices and decisions, and they're voicing those decisions they make - very loudly, sometimes. I have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, and I know this.
PARKS: Cramer runs elections in Charleston County, South Carolina, and his new book is called "Owlbert Learns To Vote." It's about an owl named Owlbert and his friends, who face a big decision - do they want a soccer field or a playground outside their school? Eventually, there's an election. And no spoilers, but one side does not get what they want, which Cramer says is actually why he wrote this book.
CRAMER: That is the story here. It's not necessarily about the right to vote. It's more so, here's how we handle adversity when our choices are not chosen. And how do we work through that?
PARKS: That's obviously a pertinent lesson, at a time when one of the candidates for president still falsely claims that he won the last time around. But Cramer sees the lessons in "Owlbert Learns To Vote" as bigger than a single election. He remembers being in high school and debating with his best friend about politics, but he doesn't see that as much anymore.
CRAMER: I think there's this idea that if we believe differently, we can't associate with one another.
PARKS: Cramer is 35 now, and he's also just trying to push back against the political apathy that he sees in his fellow millennials.
CRAMER: We'll be the first ones to sign up to do a food bank, but the last one to actually go work the polls or actually vote. And I think there's a loss there that, hey, if my choice doesn't win, it doesn't matter anymore. But we're teaching kids at a young age, continue on. Continue fighting for that. Keep believing in that. That's OK, that your choice didn't win.
PARKS: Luckily, at the end of the book, there's another election that isn't so contentious for Owlbert and his friends - cake or ice cream?
Miles Parks, NPR News, Washington.
MARTIN: And here's more music from Khalil Amaru.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KHALIL AMARU: (Singing) La, la, la, la, la, la, da, da. Can't you feel the heat? Can't you feel the joy in me? Can't you feel the heat? Oh, la, da, da, da, da. Can't you feel the heat? Can't you feel the joy that you have in me? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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