Customer Reviews

Meet Martin Luther King, Jr. (Landmark Books)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the perfect biography for kids around 8-12 years old to read. It has lots of information and is a little more advanced than a Martin Luther King biography you would find in a first grade classroom would be.This would also be a great book to read if a child has to do a report.

We have read a lot of biographies, but this one was different. I don't really know why. My son, 6, was captivated by this book. He now devours EVERYTHING he hears about Martin Luther King, Jr. My son learned about a man like himself in many ways who experienced difficulties and fought unfair laws just because of his color. He also learned about a man named Gandhi and the influence he had on Dr. King. I was so impressed by the impression that this book made on my son. And he recognized scenes from the book when we watched the movie "KING." Rarely does any book have this much impact on a young child. It definitely deserves 5 stars.

I have mixed opinions this book. I think the writing style is for children ages 5-8. It tells the story of MLK in a very compelling and interesting way for children. The problem I have with it is that it is written to children who lived in a completely different world than children live in today (at least in my region). Everything is written about blacks and whites. The concept of breaking the world into two races really does not exist in my children's world. I almost felt that it made them start seeing differences in their friends that they did not notice before. I don't know that it's a good thing. Also, the book uses the "n" word which caught me by surprise - I'm not sure I wanted to have that conversation with a 4 yo. All in all, I would say definitely screen this before you read it to children and make sure you are prepared to have the follow-up conversation with them about the topics raised. I absolutely would not let my children read this on their own.

Meet Martin Luther King, Jr. Landmark Books, by James T. De Kay
104 pages, Biography

Meet Martin Luther King, was a very interesting book. I know that this book has been used by the Princeton Review to help teach nonreaders to read. While the topic is great and the effort is even better, I feel that this may not be the best book for such an important activity. The book is clearly stated as being for a fourth grade audience; however the sentence structure is more along the line of a pre-school level. The use of punctuation is horrible and just flat out wrong. I don't know if a comma was used in the entire book. I just know that if I had a fourth grade son or daughter, or a high school senior for that matter, I would prefer they learn sentence structure and language a bit better than this book portrays.
As previously mentioned the ideas portrayed in this book are wonderful. The struggles that were going on at the time are exemplified through the great efforts of Martin Luther's life long battles to help eliminate discrimination. The portrayal of the life of Dr. King, while shown through a fine lined pen, is very useful in illustrating the major points of his life. I feel the purpose of the book is met, and the story is told. Also, the fact that the book is readable to a fourth grader is helpful in teaching the nonreaders of our country.
Depending on your purpose as a reader this may or may not be the book for you. It is a one sided illustration of the life and a poor level of writing at the same time. I would hope that there are better and more complete illustrations of Martin Luther King Juniors' life.