Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

by David A. Adler, Colin Bootman (Illustrator)

[Holiday House Reader Level 2]

From the Holiday House Reader series, this volume briefly introduces Martin Luther King Jr. as a civil rights leader. Adler points out not only King's childhood experiences with racism but also the values his parents taught him: self-respect, dignity in the face of injustice, and the power of ideas and words. This brief biography chronicles the main events of King's life and goes on to include his death and his legacy as "a powerful man of peace."

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Biography, Childrens, History

Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

David Abraham Adler is an American children's author. He was born in New York City, New York in 1947. He graduated from Queens College in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics and education. For the next nine years, he worked as a mathematics teacher for the New York City Board of Education, while taking classes towards a master's degree in marketing, a degree he was awarded by New York University in 1971. In that same year, a question from his then-three-year-old nephew inspired Adler to write his first story, A Little at a Time, subsequently published by Random House in 1976. Adler's next project, a series of math books, drew on his experience as a math teacher. In 1977, he created his most famous character, Cam Jansen, originally featured in Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds, which was published that year.

Adler married psychologist Renee Hamada in 1973, and their first child, Michael, was born in 1977. By that time Adler had taken a break from teaching and, while his wife continued her work, he stayed home, took care of Michael, and began a full-time writing career.

Adler's son, Michael S. Adler, is now the co-author of several books with his father, including A Picture Book of Sam Adams, A Picture Book of John Hancock, and A Picture Book of James and Dolly Madison. Another son, Edward, was the inspiration for Adler's Andy Russell series, with the events described in the series loosely based on adventures the Adler family had with Edward's enthusiasm and his pets.

As of November 2008, Adler has three sons and two grandsons. He lives in Woodmere, New York.

(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[J9]

A book my 6 yr old loved, a little old for my preschoolers. A solid reading level 2 book, this reader has a good amount of advanced vocabulary words, but not so long that it discourages a new reader. Used it for his read out loud book, which was perfect. It took about 20 mins for him to read and had just enough new vocabulary words to make it challenging. Also, it was a fun and interesting story he could get into. He liked it so much, he asked for more by this author. Great reading book!

[Jerrica]

This book was very informational although it's a children's book. I feel that it told a lot about what was going on in this time era that kids will grasp. The text and font placement was bold and visually well placed hat you knew what to read next. I enjoyed the illustrations in this book because they're extremely detailed. There were so many colors being used throughout.
I liked how the water-colored illustrations are actual scenes for what happened in history. I think this is a great book to read to children in second and/ or third grade. I feel that this age range should be aware of why we have a day in January off.

[Suzie]

Very good book to read with the kids. Tells about his life and death in a way that is easy for them to understand.

[Michelle]

A powerful man of peace.

[Julian Franklin]

The is the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. It describes the many personality traits of him and his journey during the civil rights movement. The book discusses his longing to create peace and harmony around the world.
This book can be used for teaching about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. To teach literacy from this book I would talk about the character traits of Martin Luther King, Jr. and then have them write about why they think people listened and liked him. I think this could be very powerful because the book describes many of his traits.

[Shelli]

David Adler is a professional at writing entertaining and informative mini-biography books for young readers. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. briefly covers the key points of the famous Civil Rights activist life and would be a fantastic addition to any elementary school library or classroom.