Not Just For Kids: Biographies aimed at children include Abraham Lincoln, Malcolm X, Josephine Baker and Thomas Jefferson

 

This month, a few new biographies of famous black thinkers and doers will hit bookstore shelves. The books are geared towards children, and come complete with flaws and all. 

From the Los Angeles Times:

“Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker” (Chronicle Books, $17.99, ages 7-10), Patricia Hruby Powell’s scrupulously researched, high-spirited celebration of the color-line-crossing dancer, illustrated by Christian Robinson, takes its verbal and visual cues from the sights and sounds of Baker’s life and times. […] Powell’s poetic voice details not only Baker’s rise to stardom, onstage triumphs and offstage heroism but also her disappointments, excesses and her descent into homelessness before a glorious return to the stage and funeral fit for a queen.

Read more at Los Angeles Times

Also out this month is “Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X.,” written by his daughter Ilyasah Shabazz.

While the book isn’t as bold in exposing the civil rights icon’s flaws as “Joesphine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker,” it does provide a look into the early life of Malcolm X.

 

 

What do you think of children’s biographies that expose both the successes and flaws of figures?

Is it a good practice that should be implemented in literary pieces across the board?

Sound off below!