Download I Am Martin Luther King Jr Ordinary People Change the World Series Audible Audio Edition Brad Meltzer Donte Bonner Various Listening Library Books

Product details Audible Audiobook Listening Length 21 minutes Program Type Audiobook Version Unabridged Publisher Listening Library Audible.com Release Date February 5, 2019 Language English, English ASIN B07N4B7SCH

I Am Martin Luther King Jr Ordinary People Change the World Series Audible Audio Edition Brad Meltzer Donte Bonner Various Listening Library Books Reviews

• Lately, as a parent I have felt like a complete failure. The world is a complete mess, or so it feels that way. I cannot cope with all the hatred and violence. How could I possibly be expected to reassure my children that everything is going to be alright?
  
  A couple weeks ago, I hit a real low. It was a feeling of hopelessness kind of low. Nothing particularly bad had happened, but I felt like there was nothing I could do to help the people that were having very bad things happen to them. I not only felt this way, but my oldest daughter has been struggling with filtering though the world news. And then this magical thing happened...I came home from a particularly long day and discovered I am Martin Luther King, Jr. in my mailbox. That night when we sat down to read the book, I was transfixed with one particular page where Dr. King explains what he learned from the teachings of Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi. It was a lesson of nonviolent resistance, a lesson of love and peace. I needed to hear this lesson as much as my children needed to hear it.
  
  The book can be difficult to read at times because it does not shy away from the truth about racism and injustice. It takes courage to step out of your own bubble and acknowledge the pain in others' lives. My children, who both attend extremely culturally diverse schools, were shocked at the inequities demonstrated in the text and images. With my oldest daughter, we were able to engage in discussion of when she still recognizes racist behavior or inequities today. With my youngest daughter, we talked about how she should respond if she sees someone not being treated fairly.
  
  The book provides a joyous lesson in hope. It provides a lesson in refusing to give into hate and violence. These lessons are difficult to teach your children, but having a book as a guide helps tremendously. Books like this serve as conversation starters.
  
  The cartoon-like illustrations by Christopher Eliopoulos provide images that small children are naturally draw into viewing for long periods of time. This is important if you want to read a page and then discuss what the words mean. The illustrations also make difficult topics less scary. I remember taking Miss M to the King Center in Downtown Atlanta when she was only five, and some of the pictures that were at the King Center made her very upset because of their violent and graphic nature. This book provides the perfect balance of realism for the topic and palatable imagery to engage young minds. I look forward to reading many other books in this Ordinary People Change the World.
  
  I received this book, free of charge, in exchange for a fair and honest review.
• I really like this series. By starting the characters as kids, they become very relatable to my 6yo. More so than many other such books.
  
  I do wish they’d do more of the non-white characters as heroes for work not just related to civil rights. There’ve been great black, Asian, Hispanic and Native writers, artists, scientists, actors, inventors, conservationists AND activists. As a white parent of white kids I do appreciate the many chances this series has provided to talk about racial injustice and how we have to fight it, but I feel like the message it’s sending is that’s all people of color only are heroes when they assert their own right to equality, while white people “get” to do all kinds of other things. I also look forward to more books set in countries other than the US.
  
  Still, the series is still young. There’s time for this (right, authors?) I have literally bought all the books and my kid really likes them and they’ve been jump off points for great conversations. Thanks for that!
• This series is wonderful! My girls, 5 and 2, love these books. We started with I Am Rosa Parks after my kindergartener learned about Civil Rights at school. We've since bought 2 more, including this one. The books do a great job of explaining difficult subject matter in a way that kids can understand and the illustrations really interest them. We read these books over and over and over. I can't recommend them highly enough.
• We wanted to give our kindergartener a more thorough introduction to MLK. This book is beautifully written. It celebrates Dr. King's life and legacy without going into his tragic death. Our daughter was fascinated by the story of people marching and being persistent in the face of so much adversity. She learned so many great lessons from this book. My only memory from kindergarten was my teacher, Mrs. Cross, teaching me about MLK, so it meant a lot to be able to share this wonderful human being with my daughter and I don't think I could have done it successfully without this beautiful book.
• I bought this for my almost 5yo twins to learn age appropriate US history and civil rights. They love it! When we bring the book out, they exclaim, "King Junior!" It manages to refrain from sugar coating the history while being age appropriate for small children. All of the books in this series, including this one, has the main character as sort of childlike (shorter than adult characters, even when he is at home with his daughter) but I think this just gets the kids more interested. The end has a number of real pictures of him. It feels respectful of his legacy and is a great start to begin exploring history with kids.
• I love this series, which makes heroes accessible to kids. I haven't quite decided whether I like the decision to have them keep their adult heads when they are children. It's a bit confusing. I finally decided I liked the decision for 2 reasons first, it reminds us that these towering figures were once kids (as are the members of the audience), and it helps the kids remember faces that should be known by every American. Oh, and my 5 year old daughter has enjoyed hearing them each multiple times.
• My seven year old grandson loves these books! We were waiting for this book and were so happy when it was released in January. We even bought an extra one for his first grade teacher. The stories are easy for a child to understand and the illustrations are great. Hopefully there will be more to come.