From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-Garvey, self-taught and driven, was a controversial, if not outright explosive, character who kept a high profile (even in prison) as an advocate for Black Nationalism. A Jamaican born in 1887, he was confronted with prejudice as a teen learning the printing trade. In 1910, in response to a union strike in which blacks were peripheral, Garvey started the first of a lifelong series of failed newspapers advocating political action. His flamboyant charge through life was filled with romance; intrigue; organizational and marital discord, including a strange association with the KKK; repeated failures at building black shipping companies and news ventures; the donning of a Napoleon-like uniform; imprisonment for mail fraud; and passionate championing of black people and the establishment of a black homeland. Careful to balance the extremes of her subject's life, Caravantes finds herself enmeshed at times in vignettes that are well documented, yet somehow overly detailed, and the book becomes a rambunctious, sometimes confusing, roller-coaster ride through the life of a famous (or infamous) figure. The chronology helps readers sort through the incredible ups and downs, and the references are helpful. Students will probably emerge somewhat bewildered: the man was an enigma and that fact about him, if nothing else, is crystal clear.
Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
