Frederick Douglass: Leader Against Slavery

by Patricia C. McKissack, Fredrick L. McKissack

A biography of the former slave who became an orator, writer, and leader in the anti-slavery movement.

Genres: Biography

32 pages, Library Binding

First published June 1, 1987

About the author

Patricia C. McKissack was the Newbery Honor, Coretta Scott King Award-winning author of The Dark-Thirty and Porch Lies an ALA Notable Book. She collaborated with Jerry Pinkney on Goin' Someplace Special (Coretta Scott King Award winner) and Mirandy and Brother Wind (Coretta Scott King Award winner and Caldecott Honor Book).

Reviews

[Amy Dennehy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I though the author did a wonderful job detailing the life of Frederick Douglass. I have always learned a lot abut Fredrick Douglass and his work with slaver throughout my many history classes. However, this book did such a good job of provided the most important and personal details of his life in such a short and easy to read book. I loved how this book had picture to go along with the text that not only reinforced the writing but also provided its own information through text boxes. This book provides so much information but is also very easy to read so it would be perfect to use in a classroom during a lesson on slavery. This book could be read aloud and is easy to stop to provide extra information of allows discussion topics. I highly recommend this book.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this children's non-fiction history book due to the vast amount of information given through both the pictures and text. I really liked how all of the pictures had explanations next to them to give further insight into what is going on in that picture. This book details Frederick Douglass, an American Hero who fought to end slavery. He was born into slavery and realized it was morally wrong for one person to own another. This ignited in him his fight against slavery. Once Abraham Lincoln freed slaves in 1863, Douglass continued to fight to make blacks have all the same rights as whites. He will always be remembered as an abolitionist. This book is great for teaching students about slavery in America and what it took to overcome the issue.

[Katie Frakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love every aspect of this book because it does a great job at describing the life of Frederick Douglass. Before reading this book, I felt like I knew a lot about this American hero because I have done research on him in the past. However, I learned so much about him that I didn’t know after reading this book! This book consists of both text and pictures. The pictures are nicely explained in separate text that provides further insight. This book would be great for teaching students about slavery in America and what it took to overcome this issue. I would recommend this book for upper elementary grades and above.

[Tyffani Mine]

This non-fiction biography is about Frederick Douglas, a slave who against all odds found freedom and became a well known writer/author. It talks about how newspapers and writing helped get important information around the nation. This text can be used as a mini lesson to compare mediums of writing in the past to today. You could also discuss the purpose of writing and different types of writing purposes such as to persuade, inform, entertain, etc.

[Milinkalap · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I ever read.

[Valerie]

Great African Americans series, A biography for younger readers, the book uses both drawings and photographs to illustrate Douglass' life.