Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass: A
Monumental American Man by Tonya Bolden is one of those essential books that
every middle and high school library should have one their shelves. Published
in 2018, it is a highly attractive and authoritative account of the life of one
of America’s true heroes.
Last year President Trump gave some little speech in which
he mentioned Frederick Douglass and it was pretty obvious from the way he spoke
that he knew nothing about Douglass, even making it seem that the famous
x-slave was still alive. “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice,” Trump said without realizing the man has been dead for
over 120 years (Wash. Post). It was funny at the time, but really sad in retrospect.
Frederick Douglass lived a phenomenal life well beyond being
an escaped slave who wrote about his experiences. He was a “reader, teacher,
orator, self-emancipator, abolitionist, author, editor, intellectual, civil
rights activist, women’s rights activist, public servant, diplomat, statesman,
humanitarian, husband, father, grandfather” and I would add, a voting right’s
activist---lobbying not only for voting rights for blacks but also for women.
Some say that Frederick Douglass was the Martin Luther King, Jr. of the
nineteenth century in America. He never stopped trying to make the country a
freer and fairer place for all people. When he died in 1895, “a hush fell upon
the land”. These words he wrote about the death of Abraham Lincoln but were
true at his passing, too.
I love information books like this one authored by Tonya
Bolden. It is full of photos, samples of works by Douglass, and illustrations.
It is readable, with a target audience of 5-8th grade, though I
think high school students would benefit from reading it, too. (Heck, I am an
adult I learned a lot from reading it!) It has source notes, a Frederick
Douglass timeline, photo credits, and an index which make it useful for
research projects.
Check Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Monumental American Man out from your local library. I am sure you will
find it interesting, too.
Wow, I'd forgotten about T's ignorance of Douglass. Of course, he doesn't read, and definitely needs to.
ReplyDeleteI think reading young adult non-fiction books is a great way to learn about a subject when you don't want to delve super deep into a dense adult non-fiction. I found that to be true in reading books for the CYBILS; I learned a bunch about topics that I normally wouldn't read.
ReplyDeleteI am guessing that this will be a Cybils nominated book this year. I am trying to read as many nonfiction YA/Junior books that have starred reviews as I can this year so if I get selected as a judge again I will have a leg up already. And I am reminding myself to write the reviews now rather than try to remember what it was I liked about the book later.
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