Her husband's American journey has been told, but no less fascinating is the inspiring path that Michelle Obama has taken from a modest upbringing in Chicago to the White House. Hers was the family unit that Barack Obama whose father abandoned his mother when he was not yet two-had always longed for- a mother, father. who worked for the city, and older brother who loved, nurtured, and supported her. A child of achievement in the public schools of Hyde Park, she followed her basketball-star brother Princeton, and then she went on to Harvard Law School. She returned to Chicago and joined a big firm (which is where she met Barack, during his summer internship) but left that job to give legal aid to the community. Now, this exemplary, vivacious woman is our First Lady. In words and pictures, some never before, seen, LIFE books, which last year produced the runaway bestseller The American Journey of Barack Obama, now tells Michelle's story - an important one about the individual's ability to rise and achieve, to seek opportunity in a democratic land and seize it. Photography of Michelle's childhood is included, and of course there are pictures of her own children and their new life in the White House.