Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently launched her new book Just Help: How to Build a Better World, where she tells the story of Sonia, a little girl who every night before going to bed receives the same question from her mother: How did you help others today?

 

The Puerto Rican judge's story is inspired by her childhood in the Bronx and her battle with diabetes. With simple, everyday examples, Sotomayor shows how the protagonist does her bit to help the community around her.

 

In the book, the children help in a variety of ways: sending aid packages to U.S. soldiers overseas, recycling plastic bags, cleaning up a park, donating toys to a children's hospital and encouraging others to vote.

 

"I want kids to do this intentionally, to think that this is a requirement for almost living, that trying to figure out how they're going to make a better world should be part of their life's burden," the judge said before the official launch. 

 

Sotomayor said she wants children not only to help their families and friends, but also to "think about how to help neighbors and how to help our community, and that it takes active thinking and active action to change the world."

 

Sotomayor's mother, Celina Baez Sotomayor, who passed away last year, was a major inspiration for this book, and also a forthcoming work whose working title is Just Shine. 

 

"My mom inspired this book. Mommy worked at a hospital full time, while needing to raise my brother and me. And with all her responsibilities at home and also with her job, she always made time to help her neighbors. My mom was always busy doing a favor or an errand for a neighbor, like picking up medicine for someone or helping someone make a doctor's appointment. She taught me that every person can make a difference in improving the lives of everyone in their communities," she told People en Espanol's Book Corner in an interview. 

 

Sotomayor's other books include Turning Pages: The Story of My Life and Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You, about children with problems such as autism, dyslexia and Down syndrome. All of Sotomayor's books have also been published in Spanish.