Martin's Big Words

 

Title: Martins Big Words

Author: Doreen Rappaport 

Illustrator: Bryan Collier

Age:3-14

Award:  Caldecott Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Book, ALA Notable Children's Book

This book is well written and the illustrations are beautiful and there is a lot of information and positives in this book but I do not believe I would use this book in my class because of some equity issues I had with this book.

One criticism is that in the image of the civil rights march there are thirteen men on display, none of whom are either white or female, both did march with him however.  The other criticism of the book is that whites are only portrayed as evil rednecks that want to kill Dr. King. The book says plenty of things about diversity and the coming together of the races. As for the lack of positive white images, I admit they're not present in this particular book and I think that this could cause problems for readers that might come to the conclusion that all whites where against blacks when in reality whites where fighting for a civil rights change just as much.