>> In memory of Dick Robinson,
and sponsored by the Institute
of Museum and Library Services.
>> Brayden Harrington:
Hi everybody.
I am Brayden Harrington.
So the reason I chose this
book, or the reason I chose
to write this book
is because I wanted
to like help kids overcome
what challenges them the most,
whether it's like crowds,
talking publicly, or it's just
like anxiety, anything.
I just want to help those
people overcome anything
that they're afraid of.
So what surprised me the
most about writing a book is
that it took a long time.
I honestly kind of thought it
would take a tiny bit of time
but there's a lot
of things that need
to be done like illustrations.
You have to take
pictures of things
so the illustrator can draw
those things out in the book,
and you have to collab with a
writer too, or you have to talk
with your writer to just
like have in touch with them
so you know what
page you're on too.
The reason I met Biden is
because I didn't really
want to go to the rally.
I don't -- I didn't really like
politics when I was going to it
but my dad dragged me to see
Biden, kind of, and I sat there
and I was just astonished.
We -- me -- our -- just me, I
played like a game with my dad.
Every time he had a bump,
I would let him know.
I would like elbow him or
something to let him know
that he had a bump and stuff,
and my dad was like yeah.
And so after the pep rally,
or the rally, we were in line
to say hi to him,
and my dad said hi,
my name is Owen Harrington.
This is my son Brayden and he --
-- stutters and Biden
like dropped everything
kind of thing.
Like he paused the whole
world kind of thing
and he just put his shoulder
on me and he said it's okay.
It's going to be okay.
And he started giving
me compliments.
He started kind of like
referring to his past and stuff,
and I broke, so I went to the
backroom and we talked for about
like an hour about
like his childhood,
how he writes his
addresses in his --
and how he kind of like overcame
what he was having trouble with.
It didn't really hit
me in elementary school
because everybody knew
me in elementary school.
It really hit me when I
was in my middle school,
because there were new people,
there were new things sort
of thing, and a lot of people
didn't know what the -- a word
-- stutter is, so
they kind of like --
they were like kind of
judging me and I didn't --
I don't blame them, because
they had no clue what it is,
and it's not -- it's pretty
rare for people to have
that in public, so they
kind of judged me for it.
They kind of -- they laughed
at me and felt pretty bad
about myself but then we kind
of told them what it was.
Their parents told
them what it was,
and they were like oh, okay.
And then they just stopped and
they kind of just like chilled
out for like the next
three years of that place,
and it was just -- it
was still kind of nervous
and then I met Joe Biden
and it like felt --
I felt like I was like in a
place where I could belong kind
of thing sometimes, and
it made me more stronger.
It made me more like
healthier mindset sometimes,
and it gave me like the power to
like persevere through anything,
power through anything,
so it made me feel
like way better about
myself too.
I want them to know
that anything is
possible kind of thing.
Like if you try, it'll happen,
and that if you have a
challenge, overcome it.
And like I said, if it's
like talking in public,
if it's anxiety, if it's
anything else, then it's okay
to go out of the box kind
of thing, and to like kind
of like challenge
yourself a little bit.
So what I want kids to
learn from my book is
to treat others the way you
want to be treated and to never
like judge a book by its cover
kind of thing, and to always go
in their shoes to think of
what is going on with them
and if you can help them,
that would be amazing.
If you can't, if you don't
want to, then that's fine.
And if there's anything that's
like stopping you or anything
like me, I have a
stutter, I call it my gift,
because it's brought
people together
and it's made our country
like a better thing.
I'm not saying politics
or anything.
I'm just saying like it's
brought people together
and it's made people join
hands and all that stuff
and that's it, and thank
you all for joining tonight.