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Gr 2–5—Miriam Makeba was a South African singer who used her talent to challenge apartheid and to encourage South Africans to rail against injustice. Early in her career, Makeba decided to sing in Setswana, IsiXhosa, and IsiZulu precisely because the white ruling class did not speak those languages. A sense of rising tension is unmistakable throughout the text, and each of Makeba's hopeful successes is followed by f...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

The effects of colonialism on the continent of Africa are pernicious and vile; in every country the consequences continue to be real and raw, among them those from apartheid, the institutional racism that was law in South Africa between 1948 and 1991. For Americans, the most familiar resistance hero is Nelson Mandela, but now Erskine (Mockingbird, rev. 3/10), in her debut picture book, uses a driving present-tense narrative to bring to the fore another hero, singer Miriam Makeba. Erskine's prose st...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

The effects of colonialism on the continent of Africa are pernicious and vile; in every country the consequences continue to be real and raw, among them those from apartheid, the institutional racism that was law in South Africa between 1948 and 1991. For Americans, the most familiar resistance hero is Nelson Mandela, but now Erskine (Mockingbird, rev. 3/10), in her debut picture book, uses a driving present-tense narrative to bring to the fore another hero, singer Miriam Makeba. Erskine's prose st...Log In or Sign Up to Read More