From School Library Journal
ea. vol: 48p. (Picture Book Biography Series). CIP. Discovery Enterprises. 1991. Tr $17.95; pap. $7.95. Grade 3-6-- Two attractive books devoted to prominent figures in American history. Cryan-Hicks recounts DuBois's lifelong role as an advocate for African-American rights and world peace. His many outstanding achievements and honors are fully detailed. More in-depth biographies for older students include Virginia Hamilton's W. E. B. DuBois (Crowell, 1972), Emma Gelders Sterne's His Was the Voice: The Life of W. E. B. DuBois (Macmillan, 1971; o.p.), and Mark Stafford's W. E. B. DuBois: Scholar and Activist (Chelsea, 1989). Sawyer describes Mott's Quaker upbringing and attributes many of her convictions about the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements to that heritage. Doris Faber's Lucretia Mott (Garrard, 1971; o.p.), is for younger children and is highly fictionalized. Mott is better represented in Nancy Smiler Levinson's collective biography The First Women Who Spoke Out (Dillon, 1983). The subjects of both of these series entries are portrayed in a realistic manner without fictionalized dialogue. The texts are readable, and the information is accurate. Each double-page spread includes one page of text facing one full-page, colorful crayon illustration, many of which seem to have been based on photographs. The books don't have indexes, chronologies, or timelines. Concise, informative, and interesting introductions to the lives of two famous Americans. --April L. Judge, Thousand Oaks Library, CA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The World - January/February 1992
Cryan-Hicks has written a simple, readable biography of the prominent African-American leader and scholar that gives children both an understanding of the world in which DuBois lived and an understanding of the man himself. The engrossing narrative is illustrated with large, full-color drawings that help to make the material inviting to young children.
