As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel's…

00002066

As Good as Anybody is a charming creative history picture book that parallels the lives of Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Joshua Heschel. The book creates the parallel through the use of repetitive statements, the use of a timeline that begins when both men were boys and follows them through to their later relationship as social movement activists and the use of a similar tone of melodically enticing writing throughout each story and then in the culmination of their story when they marched together. For example, the repetition of the title quote "As Good as Anybody" during emotionally relevant periods in both young men's lives and then later in the speeches they gave to garner support emotionally and physically for their beliefs.
In a society of commercialism where MLK day has become another excuse for sales at your local mall it is nice to read a book that tries to give an account that shows through beautiful, soft illustrations and emotionally charged words that there is a greater significance we need to be focused on when celebrating such an illustrious figure's life and contribution to the way that we see each other.
While the book is mainly a suppositional rendering of both men's timeline by the author in respect to dialogue and minute details of the events that shaped both men's lives, it does achieve both an emotional response from the reader and a general picture of the events which lead to Martin Luther King and Abraham Heschel's meeting and subsequent relationship. A relationship that brought together different ethnic groups in America (in this case a Southern Black man and a Jewish Rabbi) to march for a common cause that had been neglected, ignored, or furiously segregated -- the right of every man to be free and equal because we are all just As Good as Anybody.
As far as classroom significance, I think that the initial emotional response that students will have to words like "you are as good as anybody" and "in the next world..." which are repeated in both stories will garner lively discussion because they do "feel" as if they encompass everyone. Also, topics about why stories like Heschel and King's are significant to us now and what we can learn from them. Not hard questions or even original, but lively ones that can translate from a kindergarten class to a middle school or even high school (with some extra reading involved) because there are still issues of segregation, prejudice, and bullying that students have to deal with today. ( )

As Good as Anybody is the story of two leaders who experience racism on opposite sides of the globe. The story begins by describing the struggle that Martin Luther King, Jr. experienced in his quest to gain equal rights for African Americans in America. It gave us a glimpse into his childhood, and how it may have influenced his future as a civil rights leader. On the other side of the world, Abraham Joshua Heschel was experiencing his own form of discrimination. The Jews were being sent to concentration camps after being treated as second-class citizens. In an effort to make life better for his mother, Abraham decided to go to America. He had heard that people were treated fairly there. Once there he realized that African Americans were experiencing discrimination, and he quickly joined Martin to fight this injustice. This book contained a parallel perspective into the lives of both men. It contained repetition. Teaching ideas would included 3-6 grade, especially a social studies class. The illustrations were beautiful. They were done in soft muted water colors which help capture the somber mood of the subject matter. I like the way the author began the book with two quotes, one from Martin and one from Abraham. I’m not sure how credible the author is though. The book did not have any additional information letting the reader know how the author knew about the lives of the characters. ( )

I thought this book was very easy to follow and informative. It allows people of all ages to follow history in a way that is enjoyable and simple. ( )

The book was a simplified account of how two men from very different backgrounds joined to stand, and walk together against injustice and inequality in America. It imagined reasonable parallel experiences in a black man's life in segregated America and a polish, Jewish man's life under Nazi rule. It made both men's stories relatable to a child; for example, being hot on a summer day, or being happy to get candy. The larger sociocultural concepts were introduced incrementally. This probably was to engage the children about the men so the historical facts of the march, its overall movement, the resistance it encountered, and King's assassination were contextualized, not in history, but in the minds and lives of the children exposed to this book. ( )