SCHOMBURG: THE MAN WHO BUILT A LIBRARY
SCHOMBURG: THE MAN WHO BUILT A LIBRARY
Written by Carole Boston Weatherford Illustrated by :Eric Velasquez
Hardcover Pages: 48
Size:9.76 × 11.80 in USD:$18.99
ISBN: 9780763680466
Publication Date: September 12, 2017
Candlewick Press
Age: 9 to 12 Grade level : 4 - 7
BISACs: JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiography / Cultural Heritage
About the Book
In luminous paintings and arresting poems, two of children’s literature’s top African-American scholars track Arturo Schomburg’s quest to correct history.
Amid the scholars, poets, authors, and artists of the Harlem Renaissance stood an Afro–Puerto Rican named Arturo Schomburg. This law clerk’s life’s passion was to collect books, letters, music, and art from Africa and the African diaspora and bring to light the achievements of people of African descent through the ages. When Schomburg’s collection became so big it began to overflow his house (and his wife threatened to mutiny), he turned to the New York Public Library, where he created and curated a collection that was the cornerstone of a new Negro Division. A century later, his groundbreaking collection, known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, has become a beacon to scholars all over the world.★★★THE REVIEWS ARE IN!★★★
★ ““2011 Pura Belpre Award for Illustration Winner” ―.
“Touching.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Velasquez's full-bleed paintings transport readers to another time and place and expertly capture the characters' personalities and emotions. A gift, indeed.” ―School Library Journal
Awards:
Walter Dean Meyers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature Honor Book (Winner)
Social Justice Literature Award, Nonfiction (Winner)
Virginia Library Association Jefferson Cup Award Honor Book (Winner)
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award (Winner)
Bonus Materials
Educator’s Guide
★★★THE REVIEWS ARE IN!★★★
★' All of the book's details paint Schomburg as an admirable, flawed, likable, passionate man whose lasting legacy, Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, opens its doors to all who would learn more about the people its founder knew had been left out of the written record. A must-read for a deeper understanding of a well-connected genius who enriched the cultural road map for African-Americans and books about them.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
★' Lifelong bibliophile Arturo Schomburg would be pleased by Weatherford’s prose-poem biography, which praises his passion for researching and collecting books, manuscripts, and other written materials relating black heritage and history...As with her previous book Voice of Freedom (2015), Weatherford illuminates a person well worth knowing. A rich book to add to all collections.
—Booklist (starred review)
★' Through text and art, Weatherford and Velasquez craft a winning portrait of both collector and his collection...Schomburg’s collection was donated to the New York Public Library and now boasts over 10 million items. This excellent work of history illuminates Schomburg and his legendary collection for a new generation—it belongs in all public and school libraries.
—School Library Journal (starred review)
★' In graceful free verse, Weatherford delivers a remarkable tribute to Arturo Schomburg...Schomburg’s ambitions, scholarship, and accomplishments were tremendous—“There was no field of human endeavor/ that he did not till with his determined hand”—and Weatherford and Velasquez more than do justice to them.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
★' With great respect to the man's riveting life story, Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Honors author Carole Boston Weatherford relates through narrative poetry the story of Afro-Puerto Rican immigrant Arturo Schomburg. While each poem in Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library can stand alone as a single snapshot in the literary life of Schomburg, Weatherford's portrayal of the bibliophilic law clerk is so wondrous, readers won't be able to resist turning the pages to learn more.
—Shelf Awareness for Readers (starred review)
Velasquez’s richly detailed oil paintings aptly capture Schomburg’s zeal for learning and for teaching others...A must-read about a bibliophile extraordinaire.
—Horn Book
