Johnny Ray Moore

This small board book takes the reader through the life of Martin Luther King Jr. as a boy and into his adult life. Martin's parents are depicted as gentle folk who comply with the laws that restrict where they can go and eat. Martin feels anger and his parents help him deal with it. As he grows into adult life, he trains for the ministry and begins to influence large crowds of people.

Martin is shown as a happy child except for the areas in which he faced discrimination. Martin appears to be a child of a prosperous, well educated black family with his mother a teacher and his father a preacher. But it also shows that Martin experienced discrimination.

I think the book is beautifully done in lively detail and softened colors with well written text that doesn't overcome the young listener. I think age appropriateness would be in the first through third grade range and not necessarily for preschoolers.

I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a reviw of my honest opinion. I was not compensated.… (mehr)

Summary
This book first talks about where and when Martin was born and explains his father was a preacher and his mother a schoolteacher. It tells us that martin loved doing school work but his school was old and the white people had a new schools. He had to drink from different water fountains than the whites and couldn’t go into certain restaurants. He wanted to be able to do all the things white people could do. When he grew up he became a preacher and had fur children. One day he made a speech in front a lot of people explaining that he had a dream that his children wouldn’t be judged by the colors of their skin and his dream came true.
Personal Reaction
I liked this book because the pictures were cute and the story didn’t include too much detail. I think it was short and to the point. I think I would read it to older children but not too much older because I don’t think preschoolers can abstractly think about things like skin color.
Extension
So was a hard one to think of activities for because, when I was going to school, all we did were essays about famous people like MLK and I hated that. I think we could each say or write a thing we are able to do because of Dr. King. Maybe recite “I had a Dream” speech or maybe talk about what we would like to see change in the world?… (mehr)