Powerful and engaging.
Drawing on Frederick Douglass’ own words, this graphic novel tells the story of one man’s journey from the bondages of slavery to free, well-respected, and sought-after orator fighting for equality until the end of his life.
Readers see Douglass, the child of an enslaved mother whom he only saw a few short times in his life, with no knowledge of his actual birth date or father’s identity, being left at the plantation’s great house by his grandmother, starved by a tyrannical overseer, and sold by multiple owners. A moment of benevolence by one owner’s wife led to Frederick’s being taught to read, which proved to be the key to his liberation. Placing Douglass in historical context, the book tells readers of his support of black troops during the Civil War, his rallying for women and the vote (despite the racism of some white suffragists), his advocacy of the rights of Native Americans and Chinese immigrants, and his mentoring of anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells, and it also sheds light on intimate family relationships. The high-quality sources and extensive research lend this book an authenticity which precludes any denial of the cruelty, dehumanization, and intergenerational violence of slavery. The clear, expressive color illustrations simultaneously put faces to the characters as well as softening the blows of some of the more graphic moments in Frederick’s life, making it more palatable for a younger audience.
Powerful and engaging. (cast of characters, timeline, historical notes, sources, index) (Graphic biography. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-399-58144-1
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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