Martin Luther King, Jr: Free at Last [Paperback]

David A. Adler (Author)

Book Description

A biography of the Baptist minister who worked unceasingly for his dream of a world without hate, prejudice, or violence, and was assassinated in the attempt.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4 While Adler's biography does not alter the facts concerning Dr. King's life, it does present them in a way which makes complex issues seem overly simplified. Trying to detail the tremendous accomplishments of Dr. King in 48 pages dominated by illustrations leaves many important issues and events subject to cursory coverage. Injustice/reaction/change seems to occur on each page, which could give young readers the wrong impression of the actual magnitude of the sacrifice and turmoil involved in the civil rights movement. The illustrations are undistinguished charcoal sketches, some full page, often limiting the text to a paragraph or two. A list of important dates in Dr. King's life precedes the text. Mention is also made of the celebration of the anniversary of his birth, a fact lacking in a number of previous King biographies. While neither are of outstanding quality, both Bains' Martin Luther King (Troll, 1985) and Hunter's Martin Luther King, Jr. (Bookwright Pr, 1985) present a more complete treatment of Martin Luther King. Tom S. Hurlburt, Minneapolis Public Library, Minn.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

David Abraham Adler (born April 10, 1947) is the author of nearly 200 books for children and young adults, most notably the Cam Jansen mystery series, the "Picture Book of..." series, and several acclaimed works about the Holocaust for young readers. Adler was born in New York City, New York. He graduated from Queens College in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics and education. For the next nine years, he worked as a mathematics teacher for the New York City Board of Education, while taking classes towards a master's degree in marketing, a degree he was awarded by New York University in 1971. In that same year, a question from his then-three-year-old nephew inspired Adler to write his first story, A Little at a Time, subsequently published by Random House in 1976. Adler's next project, a series of math books, drew on his experience as a math teacher. In 1977, he created his most famous character, Cam Jansen, originally featured in Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds, which was published that year. Adler married psychologist Renee Hamada in 1973, and their first child, Michael, was born in 1977. By that time Adler had taken a break from teaching and, while his wife continued her work, he stayed home, took care of Michael, and began a full-time writing career. Adler has three children and one grandson. He lives in Woodmere, New York.

Robert Casilla, whose work has appeared in Black Enterprises magazine, The New York Times, and a number of other publications, received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He and his wife live in Yonkers, New York. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Holiday House (P) (September 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823406199
• ISBN-13: 978-0823406197
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,414,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write both fiction and non-fiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later. Of course, since I'll be spending a lot of time with each main character, why not have him or her be someone I like? Andy Russell is based, loosely, on a beloved member of my family. He's fun to write about and the boy who inspired the character is even more fun to know. Cam Jansen is based even more loosely on a classmate of mine in the first grade whom we all envied because we thought he had a photographic memory. Now, especially when my children remind me of some promise they said I made, I really envy Cam's amazing memory. I have really enjoyed writing about Cam Jansen and her many adventures. For my books of non-fiction I write about subjects I find fascinating. My first biography was Our Golda: The Life of Golda Meir. To research that book, I bought a 1905 set of encyclopedia. Those books told me what each of the places Golda Meir lived in were like when she lived there. I've written many other biographies, including books about Martin Luther King, Jr; George Washington; Abraham Lincoln; Helen Keller; Harriet Tubman; Anne Frank; and many others in my Picture Book Biography series. I've been a Yankee and a Lou Gehrig fan for decades so I wrote Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man. It's more the story of his great courage than his baseball playing. Children face all sorts of challenges and it's my hope that some will be inspired by the courage of Lou Gehrig. I am working now on another book about a courageous man, Janusz Korczak. My book One Yellow Daffodil is fiction, too, but it's based on scores of interviews I did with Holocaust survivors for my books We Remember the Holocaust, Child of the Warsaw Ghetto, The Number on My Grandfather's Arm, and Hiding from the Nazis. The stories I heard were compelling. One Yellow Daffodil is both a look to the past and to the future, and expresses my belief in the great spirit and strength of our children. I love math and was a math teacher for many years, so it was fun for me to write several math books including Fraction Fun, Calculator Riddles, and Shape Up! Fun with Triangles and Other Polygons. In my office I have this sign, "Don't Think. Just Write!" and that's how I work. I try not to worry about each word, even each sentence or paragraph. For me stories evolve. Writing is a process. I rewrite each sentence, each manuscript, many times. And I work with my editors. I look forward to their suggestions, their help in the almost endless rewrite process. Well, it's time to get back to dreaming, and to writing, my dream of a job. David A. Adler is the author of more than 175 children's books, including the Young Cam Jansen series. He lives in Woodmere, New York.