Gwendolyn Brooks: Poet from Chicago (Carter G Woodson Honor Book (Awards))

Rating:
Summary: Solid biography with lots of appeal for young adults
Review: One of my pet peeves with many biographies written for young adults is how they tend to mythologize their subject matter. I've read this book and 2 others from Morgan Reynolds (William Grant Still and Thurgood Marshall) and I'm delighted to see that while the accomplishments of these great Americans are presented accurately, they also come off sounding like real people, not icons. For example, when Brooks visited the White House for the first time, she wore an elegant evening gown, unaware that guests would be dressed casually. Embarrassed, she left early (before the President) committing another faux pas. Mixing that story in with her vast accomplishments would have been very heartening to me as an insecure teenager!

Racial issues within the black community are also clearly addressed. Too often it's presumed that "all black people think alike" and these books clearly present some of the range and variety of opinion their subjects encountered during their lifetimes.