Black Women for Beginners (Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Book, 58) [Paperback]

Saundra Sharp (Author), Beverly Hawkins Hall (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Book, 58 | Publication Date: August 1993

Chronicles the trials and triumphs of black women throughout history, describing black women warriors, healers, teachers, mothers, queens, and liberators and discussing the challenges African women from around the world have overcome. Simultaneous.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Writers & Readers (August 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0863161472
• ISBN-13: 978-0863161476
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,390,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good first start ..., May 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Women for Beginners (A Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Book) (Hardcover)

... on the history of Black Women in the world. The author basically brainstormed many facts to the reader. Nearly all were fascinating and interesting.

However, Sharp, fails to provide an adequate bibliography, footnotes or other sources for her facts and quotes. Also, she included too many sarcastic captions (via comic book fashion) which were very degrading to Black Women (and the crass language was not appreciated either). For these 2 reasons, I give this book only 3 out of 5 stars.

The author has wonderful information but did not treat the subject of Black Women in world history with the respect and sacredness it deserved. Nevertheless, the book is a good start. I recommend with hesitation. For immediate follow-up: a better, more scholarly book is Ivan Van Sertima's Black Women in Antiquity.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book for Someone Interested in Black Women History, December 29, 1999

By 

D. Leybman "Dima" (Fort Wayne, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Women for Beginners (A Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Book) (Hardcover)

This book is written by Suandra Harp and it is written in a very entertaining style. The author makes you feel comfortable in the first few pages and makes you feel relaxed that this is going to be an easy book.

The book is divide into 6 or 7 sections dealing with many aspects of Black Women Influence. For example, one of the sections at the end of the book focuses on how black women fight in the army and how they have have fought in many wars. Another section talks about how black women were part of history and how Cleopatra was really black.

The book is written in very, very easy language and there are probably words on each page which makes it quick to read. There are also picutres and many quotes from books to support her point.

She tries to show in the book that Black Women were the orignal beauties and that white people originated from blacks.

Now comes my personal thought of the book

The book was good in the sense that it was very easy to read and it had many sources but the book portrays as black women being basically perfect and that a lot of their problems were caused by whites.

The book did not show to many opposing opinions. For example, in the book she talks about Cleopatra being black but she doesn't give facts to support. This might seem a contridiction to what I said earlier about her using sources but her sources in certain parts are from refutable sources.

But all in all the book is good in the sense that it does have some good information about the history of black women. It talks about how they fought for civil rights and how they fought for women's rights and many other accomplishments that black women are responsible for.

Buy this book for a fairly good history of black women.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A dangerous book with some redeeming qualities., April 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Women for Beginners (Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Book, 58) (Paperback)

I must say that this book is one of the most damaging and dangerous book to black woman I have yet to read. The beginning of this book focuses on the afrocentric view of creationism which yes is a theory, however she never fully develops the concept. The problem with her book is that she does not have a point to many of her chapters. She uses sarcasim and inunnedo profusely without elaboration. Ms. Sharp then proceeds to "call out" fellow African Americans in history for their "wrongs" done to other African Americans. She also makes a point of mentioning woman who "pass" into white society. What she dosen't say is how they are passing. Do they deny their heritage? Or are they just not "black enough" for Ms. Sharp. The end of the book is somewhat better. It chronicles acheivements of African American woman through out history. However, because of the first part of her book, I was tempted to look up every fact because she lost credibilty in my eyes. I believe that if Ms. Sharpe would slow down and stop trying to be satirical and start trying to teach, she might be able to do some serious writing. I would not reccomend this book unless all captions written by her were taken out.