Book Review: Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Bryan Collier, Jump at the Sun, New York, 2001.

This is a children’s picture book.  This illustrator used collage and water colors and the pictures are very effective.  It also uses Martin Luther King’s words in telling the story of his life.  Of particular note, “Hate cannot drive out hat.  Only love can do that.”   “When the history books are written, someone will say there lived black people who had the courage to stand up for their rights.”  “Love is the key to the problems of the world.”  And “I have a dream that one day in Alabama little black boy and black girls will join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

The book ends with telling the story of Martin Luther King’s death, but not before letting us know that King said even if he were taken down, the movement would go on.