My Uncle Martin's Words for America: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Niece Tells How He Made a Difference

This companion to My Uncle Martin's Big Heart offers a more encompassing look at Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and accomplishments than the earlier, more personal book, which was drawn largely from Watkins's memories of her uncle. Focusing on King's public persona, Watkins (seen as an elementary school%E2%80%93aged girl in the opening spread) explains how her uncle "used the power of words to help make America better." Her language is direct yet lyrical, though at times verges on oversimplification ("Uncle Martin believed that the solution to changing Jim Crow laws was love"). The words Watkins highlights match tenets of King's philosophy%E2%80%94nonviolence, justice, freedom, equality, brotherhood%E2%80%94and tie into benchmark events in King's civil rights crusade, among them the Montgomery bus boycott, the Selma to Montgomery march, his "I Have a Dream" speech, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act. With each word she introduces, Watkins emphasizes that when King spoke that word, "people listened, and things changed!" Velasquez's rich portraits of King and his contemporaries capture the tensions of the era as well as King's passion, compassion, and efficacy. Ages 5%E2%80%939. (Sept.)