Customer Reviews

Dear Benjamin Banneker

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I bought Dear Benjamin Banneker, because I had read Molly Bannekey to my second graders (as part of lessons on "questioning") and my students loved Molly Bannekey. At the end of Molly Bannekey, she is sitting with a grandson named Benjamin. We wanted to see if this was the same Benjamin - and it was. The content and vocabulary is a little difficult for second graders, but it has some nice tie-ins to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the fight for equal rights. It would also be very appropriate for immediate grades and studies on colonial America.

The story of Benjamin Banneker as related in this children's book is poignant, with a fine moral lesson. I should know the story better than I do, but what I do know is from this children's book from a fifth grade classroom. Banneker created and published an Almanac, was a student of science and astronomy, and was also a descendant of slaves.

He wrote Thomas Jefferson who penned the Declaration of Independence, that "all men are created equal," sending with his letter the Almanac he was responsible for publishing, which more or less made unquestionable the equality of intelligence and humanity the African Americans who escaped from slavery, and questioned if Jefferson truly believed the words that he wrote. Why, then did Jefferson continue to have slaves? Jefferson wrote Banneker back, complimenting him, agreeing with him, but at that same time, it is uncertain whether it affected Jefferson's practices in owning slaves. It is not stated that Jefferson mistreated slaves, but still and all, the concept of owning another human being was something that Banneker questioned Jefferson on.

A powerful lesson in a simple format, every classroom in the United States, or any other country that has had African slaves, should have this book. Children should know the story and teachers should use this valuable historical lesson.