A Review of the book, Listen To My Dream by Debi Pearl
Listen To My Dream is an elementary level story of the life and influence of Martin Luther King, Jr, published in December of 2009. It is published by Pearl Books, LLC.
The book begins with King as a boy and ends shortly after his murder in 1968. It begins when Martin Luther King was a boy wondering why he was black and not treated the same as others. Later in school his teacher told him to hold his head high and dream big. He decided that was just what he would do.
As a ‘colored man’ (a term for Negroes at the time), he didn’t have the same privileges in the south that whites had. Then when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person and was arrested, King organized a boycott of the Montgomery bus system until blacks were treated the same as others. This eventually led to the Supreme Court ruling of 1956 that outlawed discrimination such as this.
The book is lilting in its poetic meter and, as far as it goes, does a good job of presenting the value of setting good goals and letting nothing hinder you from reaching them. This portion ends following King’s murder on April 4, 1968 and the funeral that followed.
Listen To My Dream is a 40 page book written in two parts. As was stated, the first part is written to emphasize King’s life as related to eliminating racial inequality. Part two gives more details about the civil rights movement and how King influenced it; this part is written as a narrative and has no pictures.
All the illustrations in the book are drawn by Michael and Debi Pearl, the author and publishers. At times the poem only hints at something and then, a detail is given on the picture. For example, the poem hinted at an influence for dreaming big but the note stated that encouragement came from his elementary teacher Miss Lemon.
Listen To My Dream does a good job of focusing on King’s work to eliminate legal discrimination. In this he is certainly worthy of recognition. To find out more, please visit the book's website at http://www.listentomydreambook.com/.
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