In honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday I share A Place To Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation, written by Barry Wittenstein and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. The book tells the story of how he came to write his famous, earth changing, ” I Have A Dream Speech.” The book does a good job sharing the excitement, intensity, and weightiness of the night before, and the day of, the 1963 March on Washington ( there is an overwhelming irony in comparing the most recent debacle/fiasco/criminal attempted right wing insurrection on January 6th, and the moral high ground reached on that day by Martin Luther King and the 250,00 who attended the March). Younger kids can be introduced to the ongoing movement for racial, economic and environmental justice. Older kids can explore the role of speech and language in activism and politics.
