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clarkso6's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Great introduction to African American history for younger readers! I learned a few things as well and am left with some curiosities that I'll be following up on!
betcei's review
5.0
Such a beautiful book that shows how a librarian's mind works. Arturo Schomburg learned and then learned more about the people who formed his heritage and then he made sure that others learned also. This book must be included in upper elementary and middle schools for research to encourage students to learn as Arturo did--- with enthusiasm!
gillianalice's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I loved this. It was really well written and has gorgeous illustrations. I have so much googling to do now!
traeh's review
4.0
I found this book very interesting! I’m not sure at what age range it is directed. It is very text heavy for a picture book.
snyds_'s review
4.0
Picturebook, told in verse, about the life and work of Arturo Shomoburg. Very in depth and beautifull put together. It is quite long, so could be split into multiple readings.
snazel's review
3.0
Really enjoyed the structure of the book, with tiny biographies embedded within the overarching story of Schomburg's passion for finding and preserving the history of accomplishment and achievement by African-Americans and black people worldwide.
The book kinda sets it up as absurd that a teacher would tell their students that there were no accomplishments by black people in history, and of course it is. What a desecration and willful erasing of history. But as I read it, I realized that that's what I was taught/learned/absorbed, until I started taking deliberate steps to repopulate my view of history. I didn't realize Alexandre Dumas was black until I was in university. I learned about George Washington Carver and his peanut science when I was in my late teens, only? From a placemat, I think. I learned that St. Nicholas was North African in my mid twenties. There are so many historically important people of colour I never learned about, and so many historically important people whose colour was just — never mentioned. (Funny, that.) And so I mentally filled in my picture of history with repeats of the few pictures I got. Hey presto, history is only wealthy white dudes who do a lot of posing on battlefields and on horses and next to desks. It was only when I started getting annoyed that there were so few women mentioned that I realized so many other types of people just never showed up in my mental scroll through time. And then in looking for them, history started to come alive with real people, not just paintings of dudes with their hands in their waistcoats.
Anyways so that's why Schomburg's work, and history books like this, are so important. Cause it's not just willful hatred/racism that gets entire classes of people erased from history, it's also lack of imagination and extrapolating too far that comes after the racism, and compounds it.
The book kinda sets it up as absurd that a teacher would tell their students that there were no accomplishments by black people in history, and of course it is. What a desecration and willful erasing of history. But as I read it, I realized that that's what I was taught/learned/absorbed, until I started taking deliberate steps to repopulate my view of history. I didn't realize Alexandre Dumas was black until I was in university. I learned about George Washington Carver and his peanut science when I was in my late teens, only? From a placemat, I think. I learned that St. Nicholas was North African in my mid twenties. There are so many historically important people of colour I never learned about, and so many historically important people whose colour was just — never mentioned. (Funny, that.) And so I mentally filled in my picture of history with repeats of the few pictures I got. Hey presto, history is only wealthy white dudes who do a lot of posing on battlefields and on horses and next to desks. It was only when I started getting annoyed that there were so few women mentioned that I realized so many other types of people just never showed up in my mental scroll through time. And then in looking for them, history started to come alive with real people, not just paintings of dudes with their hands in their waistcoats.
Anyways so that's why Schomburg's work, and history books like this, are so important. Cause it's not just willful hatred/racism that gets entire classes of people erased from history, it's also lack of imagination and extrapolating too far that comes after the racism, and compounds it.
readingthroughtheages's review
4.0
A biography of a man who curated a collection of books and art that told the story of many Africans that came before him. These works told the stories of people - many of which we would not be able to read today - and a history that might have otherwise not been told.