King: A Life (Young Adult Edition)

Description: "A young readers' adaptation of Jonathan Eig's bestselling biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., King: A Life"--

Brief description: Yohuru Williams is a professor of history and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. A regular contributor to a variety of media programming on CNN and History, he is the author of numerous books, including Teaching US History Beyond the Textbook, Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson, Black Freedom Fighter, and More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The former chief historian of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, he appeared in Ken Burns's Jackie Robinson and was one of the hosts of Sound Smart, the History Channel's popular YouTube program. His educational videos on civil rights, social movements, and other historic events have garnered over 1 million views. He lives in Minnesota.

Review Quotes:

A Junior Library Guild Selection
A CBC Teacher Favorite

"This searching study leaves King's shining legacy intact, all the more admirable for its attachment to a fallible man who is glimpsed here behind the icon. A frank and nuanced character study." --Kirkus Reviews

"Decades of Martin Luther King Jr. biographies may suggest that there's no uniquely compelling approach left to documenting the life of the oft-lionized civil rights leader, but award-winning biographer Eig frames this adapted edition as an effort to make Dr. King 'a person, not just a monument, not just a holiday, not just Mr. I-Have-a-Dream.' . . . While the backmatter offers the meat for potential Black history month book reports (e.g., extra facts, a timeline), a strength of this young readers' edition is how it whets the appetite for further exploration of this invaluable historical moment as well as Little Mike himself." --BCCB

"Eig, along with Williams and Long, presents a comprehensive time line of Martin Luther King's entire life, from birth to untimely death . . . By describing who King was as a person and how he came to achieve what he did, this supports young readers' journeys to not just read about King but to understand him." --Booklist

"An honest and engaging account of King. Harsh truths about the state of the country, as well as the difficulties endured by persons of color, underscore how far the U.S. has come, and still has to go, on the journey to achieve King's dream . . . A good choice to middle and high school biography shelves." --School Library Journal