The Great American Educator

Booker T. Washington: The Great American Educator
Written by Eric Braun
Illustrated by Cynthia Martin
     Published by Capstone Press

Copyright 2006
27 pages
Historical Fiction

 

Booker T. Washington is one of the most famous African-Americans to ever live. He is arguably one of the most influential to live in Alabama too. When I saw the cover of this book, I knew that it would be based around the life of a man that helped shaped our state. I chose this book because I enjoy learning about the history of Alabama; and Booker T. Washington played a very large role in completely changing this state and its culture. This book is written in a comic book style format. It could potentially represent a very short graphic novel. It is actually a very informative and interesting short story. The book takes you from Booker’s life as a young boy still enslaved to a grown man that is at the front of the race riots in the early 1900’s. Washington was the founder of the Tuskegee Institute, a school of very humble beginnings that has turned into a large academic university. Being a historical fiction, there is a sub-plot to the story that really more or less is unimportant. The most important things are the facts about Washington. He was extremely influential in both the white and black communities. His leadership and desire for equal educational opportunities led to an extremely improved quality of life for black people in the state of Alabama.

            Since this book is set up in a comic book format, all of the pictures follow the comic book style also. The pictures are extremely detailed with a magnificent use of colors. There is more than one image on about every page. In most of the images the people have a shiny affect to their head or face. This book is very good quality paper back book. The text placement within this would have to be very informal. The text is written in text bubbles all over the images. It is almost difficult to follow what order they should be read. I think the comic book style is a great thing to tie into a historical fiction book. It definitely grabs the readers’ interest from the start.

            This would be another great book to use for a read aloud during a history lesson. It would be most efficient in a lesson about Alabama’s history. The students create a cause and effect graphic organizer. In this booker the presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt were mentioned. The teacher could use this to do a lesson on these presidents, and their involvement with Booker T. Washington. The teacher could make a writing assignment for the students to write about their dreams. They could include life goals, and how they plan to reach these goals.