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18th out of 137 books
—
674 voters
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller
Coretta Scott King award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelsons great uncle was Lewis Micheaux, owner of the famous National Memorial African Bookstore. Located in the heart of Harlem, New York, from 1939 to 1975, Micheauxs bookstore became the epicenter of black literary life and a rallying point for the Black Nationalist movement. Some of its famous and most loyal patron...more
Hardcover, 188 pages
Published
February 1st 2012
by Carolrhoda Books
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This interesting twine of factual and fictional material brings to life the charismatic bookseller Lewis Michaux who pushed for education and literacy in the Harlem community. He believed that the power of knowledge that came from reading would move blacks from being victims of injustice to educated citizens producing leaders in the community. He created an institution with his bookstore that not only sold books "for black people, [books] by black people, books about black people here and all ar...more
The title No Crystal Stair refers to a phrase from Langston Hughes' poem describing a contented life where riches were not handed to him. This story on the life of Harlem bookseller Lewis Michaux is the fruit of exhaustive research by his great-niece. Lewis' life story is mixed with historical writings, such as FBI files, newspaper articles and personal memoirs, as well as sketches. For anyone who loves books or history, this documentary novel is a fascinating look at a life in Harlem and a man...more
Comprised of anecdotal material peppered with lots of memorabilia and illustrations forced this biography into the fiction category, but that aside, it is very worth reading. Well researched and fleshed out in many voices, the reader will walk in many shoes while reading this compelling story. I didn't pick this up because it won an award. I picked it up because the idea of a bookstore and its owner having such profound impact on so many intrigued me. I had to know more about this.
Lewis Michaux'...more
Lewis Michaux'...more
What is there to like?
The subject, Lewis Michaux, and the role he and his bookstore played in the civil rights movement and 20th-century black culture and history are well worth learning about, and this book does a fine job of bringing greater attention to Michaux's work, presenting it in an easy-to-read package. The inclusion of federal documents, newspaper clippings, and photographs from the time are an interesting glimpse through history, and bring it to life.
What's not to like?
Considered as...more
The subject, Lewis Michaux, and the role he and his bookstore played in the civil rights movement and 20th-century black culture and history are well worth learning about, and this book does a fine job of bringing greater attention to Michaux's work, presenting it in an easy-to-read package. The inclusion of federal documents, newspaper clippings, and photographs from the time are an interesting glimpse through history, and bring it to life.
What's not to like?
Considered as...more
Summary: In this work of historical fiction, Nelson tells the story of a man with a passion for knowledge and of a bookstore whose influence has become legendary.
This was a book that I didn't want to put down. It was very interesting. The author writes this book about her great uncle trying to find out as much as possible about Lewis Michaux, a man who opened a bookstore in Harlem to black people with books, artifacts, pictures, and other items so that black people could read material by black a...more
This was a book that I didn't want to put down. It was very interesting. The author writes this book about her great uncle trying to find out as much as possible about Lewis Michaux, a man who opened a bookstore in Harlem to black people with books, artifacts, pictures, and other items so that black people could read material by black a...more
Blending various elements of fact and fiction, this incredible book describes the life, times, and acquaintances of Lewis Michaux, whose efforts to bring books by black authors to Harlem for more than 40 years were Herculean. Michaux grew up during a time when segregation still existed in many places. His father, who ran a store and sold fish for a living, encouraged him to think for himself, and his mother favored his brother, Lightfoot, who would go on to found a Church of God. After spending...more
Appeal Characteristics: illustrations, reports/documents, historical photographs,60s, African-American Culture, Humor, Character Wit
This follows the life and death of Lewis Michaux and his influence on African-American literacy. This follows a detailed description with illustrations and actual pictures. This book doesn't really read like a regular "informative/factual" non-fiction book nor do you feel confused as it jumps around from different character narratives. It really is like watching a d...more
This follows the life and death of Lewis Michaux and his influence on African-American literacy. This follows a detailed description with illustrations and actual pictures. This book doesn't really read like a regular "informative/factual" non-fiction book nor do you feel confused as it jumps around from different character narratives. It really is like watching a d...more
The story of legendary bookseller Lewis Michaux. He set up shop in Harlem in the 1930s with the mission to inspire black folks to read. His National Memorial African Bookstore was well-known to black authors and historical figures such as Malcolm X. Amassing a collection of over 200,000 volumes by or relating to African Americans, Michaux's store was eventually driven out of business when plans for a new government building pushed his store out of the neighborhood. His legend and influence live...more
Richie’s Picks: NO CRYSTAL STAIR: A DOCUMENTARY NOVEL OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF LEWIS MICHAUX, HARLEM BOOKSELLER by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and R. Gregory Christie, ill., Carolrhoda LAB, February 2012. ISBN: 978-0-7613-6169-5
1909, LEWIS:
“I tried to make some money picking berries. The farmer man was paying two cents a quart, and the best you could pick was ten quarts a day. Twenty cents worth.
“There were about a hundred kids picking. That fat white man, with his great big hat on, set up under a wi...more
1909, LEWIS:
“I tried to make some money picking berries. The farmer man was paying two cents a quart, and the best you could pick was ten quarts a day. Twenty cents worth.
“There were about a hundred kids picking. That fat white man, with his great big hat on, set up under a wi...more
I enjoyed this book very much. It spurred me on to look up more information about topics that I had little familiarity with: Harlem, the Harlem Renaissance, and civil rights, to name a few. When I was in school, we were taught very little RECENT history and a whole lot of what was, to me, ancient history. So, even though the civil rights movement was fairly recent, I don't recall hearing much about it either in public school or in college. Another mitigating factor in my own educational experien...more
A great story about how Lewis, who started life always getting into trouble, became a man that people respected and even sought out. Growing up in a family of 11 children, a hard working father who was not around much, and a mother who checked out when he was young, Lewis knew he had to work to get what he wanted. Trouble seemed to follow him and it wasn’t until he was much older that he finally straightened himself out. Against family wished and support, he created a bookstore in the middle of...more
Originally posted at Randoom Musings of a Bibliophile.
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson won this year's Horn Book Award for Children's Fiction. I can understand why. It is a unique and original book in so many ways. Format. Content. Genre. It is also a fascinating story.
"My life was no crystal stair, far from it. But I'm taking my leave with some pride. It tickles me to know that those folks who said I could n...more
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson won this year's Horn Book Award for Children's Fiction. I can understand why. It is a unique and original book in so many ways. Format. Content. Genre. It is also a fascinating story.
"My life was no crystal stair, far from it. But I'm taking my leave with some pride. It tickles me to know that those folks who said I could n...more
Almost a five-star and maybe it ought to be. This is a compelling book and a challenging one; it is black literature through and through, reminding me of books from what I vaguely think of as a heyday for black-focused children's literature in the seventies, when four of the ten Newbery winners (plus some scattered Honors) had African American authors and/or themes and/or characters, when I met far more black characters in the pages of my school readers than I did in real life in southeast Portl...more
Publisher: A documentary novel of the life and work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem bookseller
Lewis Michaux was born to do things his own way. When a white banker told him to sell fried chicken, not books, because "Negroes don't read," Lewis took five books and one-hundred dollars and built a bookstore. It soon became the intellectual center of Harlem, a refuge for everyone from Muhammad Ali to Malcolm X.
Kirkus Reviews
Lewis Michaux provided a venue for his fellow African-Americans to have access to the...more
Lewis Michaux was born to do things his own way. When a white banker told him to sell fried chicken, not books, because "Negroes don't read," Lewis took five books and one-hundred dollars and built a bookstore. It soon became the intellectual center of Harlem, a refuge for everyone from Muhammad Ali to Malcolm X.
Kirkus Reviews
Lewis Michaux provided a venue for his fellow African-Americans to have access to the...more
This is a very special book, and not just because it received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews calling it "a stirring and thought-provoking account of an unsung figure in 20th-century American history." In these pages, Lewis Michaux emerges as both a flawed human being living in difficult times and as a player in some of the most important events of African-American and American life over 30 years.
As a novel "in documents," No Crystal Stair weaves together actual materials (articles, FBI fil...more
As a novel "in documents," No Crystal Stair weaves together actual materials (articles, FBI fil...more
This review will also be posted at Mostly Reading YA.
I received an ARC of NO CRYSTAL STAIR from its publisher. This review refers to that version of the book.
First and foremost, I must say a few things about me, as a reader: I am infatuated with some of the words of two writers of the Harlem Renaissance – Langston Hughes and James Baldwin. So, when I received a small parcel from Lerner and saw the title of this one, I was instantly interested, because the title is a reference to one of Hughes’...more
I received an ARC of NO CRYSTAL STAIR from its publisher. This review refers to that version of the book.
First and foremost, I must say a few things about me, as a reader: I am infatuated with some of the words of two writers of the Harlem Renaissance – Langston Hughes and James Baldwin. So, when I received a small parcel from Lerner and saw the title of this one, I was instantly interested, because the title is a reference to one of Hughes’...more
When I first began this book I kept thinking, why YA? Why fictionalized? Why all this stuff about Lewis's brother Lightfoot? But I got caught up in the story once Lewis got to New York and opened the bookstore. And then I knew what the problem was with the book's structure. Too linear. If it had started in Harlem and flashed back to the youth who became this man who inspired young people, it would have made sense from the start - and seemed more YA. The raw material is all there for something b...more
There were a few times when No Crystal Stair amazed me, and definitely there were times I found it interesting or fascinating. But. I didn't love this one enough to gush about it. It is a uniquely told story told in fragments, fragments which make for quick reading, for the most part. But also the fragments kept me separated, in a way, from the main character(s). It was a respectful distance. Readers meet an inspirational man with a big dream and determination to match it. A man convinced that b...more
It's a problem that I suppose every reviewer -- maybe even every reader -- experiences at some point. What happens when your take on a book is starkly, radically different from the consensus? How does that change the way you approach your discussions of it?
As I read No Crystal Stair, I have to confess that I didn't find it very effective. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson is on the record as saying that she initially conceived of the book as a pure biography of Harlem bookseller Lewis Michaux, but was unab...more
As I read No Crystal Stair, I have to confess that I didn't find it very effective. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson is on the record as saying that she initially conceived of the book as a pure biography of Harlem bookseller Lewis Michaux, but was unab...more
I was lucky enough to get a signed copy for my son at ALA this past weekend, and devoured it on the plane before handing it to him today, noting Vaunda Micheaux Nelson's inscription that sums it up perfectly: "Hooray for our amazing history!"
I'd heard of Lewis Michaux and his famous Harlem bookstore, but had never visited and didn't know much about him, and No Crystal Stair vividly tells his important story that would likely have otherwise been buried along with him. Unable to gather and confirm...more
I'd heard of Lewis Michaux and his famous Harlem bookstore, but had never visited and didn't know much about him, and No Crystal Stair vividly tells his important story that would likely have otherwise been buried along with him. Unable to gather and confirm...more
There are a lot of them out there. Everyman heroes--men who accomplish great things; inspire and touch lives. They frequently do so with no fanfare or spotlight. This is the story of one such man. I really enjoyed reading about Lewis Michaux, who had a bit of a rocky start in life, but who eventually found his niche selling books. In Harlem. Where people told him books were not exactly a high-demand item. But for nearly forty years his bookstore was the "third place" of Harlem, a center of cultu...more
No Crystal Stair is a short, fictional, documentary (which is typically non-fiction?) book about the life of a Black Rights activist, Lewis Micheaux. The entire story is told from multiple view points all focused on Lewis. About 15% of the book is sources, acknowledgements, etc so this is a very, very short read. It’s labeled YA but I don’t buy that. There is nothing YA about this book; it might be helpful for kids to read with a history unit or to encourage self-research. The writing, in my opi...more
This is a biographical novel about Lewis Michaux, who was an influential bookseller in Harlem. It was called a "documentary" novel because it includes real documents, such as photographs and newspaper clippings, and then the author wrote the narrative based on her research about Lewis, who was her great-uncle. It's geared toward YA, but I think it has crossover appeal for adults.
Lewis wanted to encourage blacks to read more about their history, so he started selling books by blacks and for black...more
Lewis wanted to encourage blacks to read more about their history, so he started selling books by blacks and for black...more
The research and the themes are great. But while kids who enjoy biographies for their own sake might get into this, I don't see broad appeal. Many kid readers won't know the historical figures involved or be able to understand the context for changing political philosophy among African-American leaders. The voices aren't strongly differentiated and come across as fairly formal; if I'm hearing first-person narratives I want immediacy, unfiltered emotions, messy motivations and feelngs revealed. W...more
The author is the great-niece of Lewis Michaux, legendary bookseller of Harlem; she tells the story using written and audio interviews with Michaux, family mementos, and interviews with people who knew the man. Because not all information could be verified or learned, she added her own suppositions to the story. The final product is then a work of fiction which she fully acknowledges. Michaux started with five books and a desire to educate his Harlem neighbors using books "by and about black peo...more
I thought, by the subtitle, 'Harlem bookseller' that this was somehow about the Harlem Renaissance...but, Lewis Michaux's amazing story takes place after that time. Told in the voices of Lewis and those around him, this chronicles the story of the National Memorial Bookstore in Harlem. Michaux fought for funding of his bookstore that would carry books for Blacks, by Blacks. No one wanted to risk money investing in his vision -- some told him Blacks would not be interested in reading and books, b...more
Not quite a true biography, but rather a fictionalizes one. I found this book fascinating, and I think teens would too. Mr. Michaux was not perfect, in fact, much like Malcolm X, he started out as a bit of a criminal. But upon moving to Harlem, he determined that the best thing to uplift the race was to open a bookstore. Starting with only 5 books, the store grew to be the largest African American bookstore, and a real hub of African American literary world.
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson was his great n...more
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson was his great n...more
I hesitated reading this book, fearing it would be too heavy, too dull. However, I am so glad I did. It is a beautifully written story about such an interesting character. It offers an important insight into a critical time of our country's history when people were fighting to secure civil rights for black people. Michaux's belief in the power of reading and educating oneself led him to open a bookstore which became a place for buying books by and about blacks, as well as for reading and discuss...more
Historical novel that seems to be more fact than fiction. The author's note explains that a lot of it is fact, but that she filled in the blanks in her research with "informed speculation", which made it a work of fiction. The format of the book is unusual too, as it is told by a lot of different point of views. The book alternates between family members, bookstore customers, and FBI files to tell the whole story of Lewis Michaux, Harlem bookseller. The format works well and does make the book g...more
This is a look at the life of bookseller Lewis Michaux. He was the founder and owner of the iconic National Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem, NY. The bookstore was in business for 40 years and was often the site of many of Malcolm X's speeches. The store was distinct for its collection of books by, for and about African people. This at a time when publishing of black authors was minimal. So to amass the kind of collection he did took a lot of dedication.
This book is a YA fictionalized biogra...more
This book is a YA fictionalized biogra...more
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| YA Reads for Teac...: October 2012 - YA Nonfiction - No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson | 10 | 31 | Nov 20, 2012 07:41pm |
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson loves bringing books and children together and feels lucky to have two careers that foster this. The children's librarian and author says, "It was destined from the day I was born. My mother found my name in a novel she was reading."
Vaunda's first book, Always Gramma, was selected by the Children's Book Council as a Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studie...more
More about Vaunda Micheaux Nelson...
Vaunda's first book, Always Gramma, was selected by the Children's Book Council as a Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studie...more
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“Everybody keeps saying be satisfied with Jesus's love, and he will give us our daily bread. I keep waiting, but we never get any bread, so I have to go out and do things for myself.”
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“I believe in God, and I love my brother. But I don't want any religion that will demand I lose my individuality.”
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Nov 18, 2012 05:36am