Books, Kids, and Martin Luther King Jr.

One of many kids' books available on the life of MLK

Weekly Readers and Scholastic book flyers: these were magical parts of my childhood. And the excitement I felt every time those flyers were handed out? The giddy urgency with which I started scanning the titles and photos and descriptions? I can still feel it. It’s one of those sensations that makes me long for childhood, that makes me mourn its loss (and, frankly, that combined with my love of kids, makes me wonder sometimes why I’m not a children’s librarian). My parents fully supported and encouraged their young bookworm, but they were also financially responsible and restricted, so I definitely didn’t get every book I wanted when the flyers came out; that would have required some serious budget adjustments. I was a great fan of both the school library and the public one.  

But there are two books, ordered in second grade and anticipated with a child’s eagerness and impatience, I remember well. Do I remember ordering and receiving them so clearly, when other book orders blend together, because maybe they were the first I ordered? Or the first I ordered that year? Or for some other reason? Do I remember them so clearly because of what they were about? I have absolutely no idea. But I remember them. At seven years old, I delivered to my teacher the envelope I’d gleefully watched my mom fill with an order form and payment. And when that long-awaited cardboard box finally arrived, full of books, I could barely contain myself as my teacher pulled out order by order — my biographies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln were in there somewhere.  

I fought a twinge of disappointment when I first held them in my hands — they were thin, their covers flimsy and glossy. I’d expected them to be more substantial, to be heftier, to look more like my dad’s books. But these were kids’ books. Nevertheless, I moved past my disappointment and cherished those books and pored over their stories about two men who in their eras shaped a nation. I don’t remember the Lincoln book very well. But the image of the MLK biography is clear in my mind. I can see its cover; I can smell its pages. I can remember how awed by — and sad about — him I was.  

The foundations for so much of our appreciation and understanding of people and ideas and so much of our values are formed – or have the potential to be formed — when we are kids (and this is true across the board, as animal advocates know, from how we think about our fellow humans to how we think about our fellow animals). I was a kid who loved learning about Martin Luther King and what he stood for, whose heart was filled by his words and life, who was angry at what he and others had to fight, and who cried when she found out what happened to him. But I was also a kid in a rural Midwestern town and school that was almost blindingly white, where race and racial issues weren’t discussed, whose awareness was painfully limited. I was a kid whose only exposure, more or less, in her grade school years to people who didn’t look and live just like her was via television programs such as Sesame Street. I regret that, very much, but I am glad for that book at least. I am glad for how it impacted me, for how it gave me at least that first hint of awareness.  

If you have a child or grandchild, or you’re close to a niece or nephew or neighbor or friend’s child, consider talking to him or her today about MLK and the battles he fought — and the battles that continue to be fought. Don’t make today the only day you do that, but try to make a point of having that conversation or of doing a related activity today. The following Web sites offer lots of great resources for information and activities for kids related to Martin Luther King Jr. Check them out.  

• Martin Luther King Jr Resources for Teachers from TeacherVision (ignore the “for teachers” part — plenty of these creative ideas, activities, and resources are great for at-home, one-on-one interactions too)
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Activities for Celebrating with Your Kids from Family Education
• Make Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Meaningful for Kids from ParentDish

Finally, last year on MLK Day, I wrote with a different focus, about Coretta Scott King and nonviolence — nonviolence extended to all humans and all animals. I have now archived that post here: “Celebrating Coretta, Who Celebrated Nonviolence — And Stopped Eating Animals.”  

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The book whose cover is featured above is available at Amazon here; I have no firsthand knowledge of this specific book, but it’s one of many geared toward kids.