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Overview
Toni Morrison is an editor, teacher, and novelist. Her novels, Sula, The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Beloved, and Jazz, to name a few, have made a huge impact on both African American and women's literature. Morrison has earned countless awards, among them the prestigious Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize, for both her fiction and nonfiction writing. She also teaches a class "Studies in American Africanism" at Princeton University.Discusses the personal life and literary achievements of the woman who, in 1993, became the first African American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Editorials
School Library Journal
Gr 3-6Three average-quality selections that focus on the achievements of well-known African Americans. Wynton Marsalis includes little on the musician's early years. The choppy, repetitive text focuses primarily on jazz, and on Marsalis's thoughts about music. Toni Morrison has the best organization of the three. It includes an interesting portrayal of Morrison's ancestors, commentary on the strong sense of community she experienced in her childhood, her work as a teacher and editor, her development as a writer, and her winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. Denzel Washington chronicles the life of the actor, beginning with his difficult childhood in Mt. Vernon, NY, through his ascent to stardom and his charity work. The text is dry at times, but well organized. In all of the books, potentially unfamiliar words appear in bold type; the choice of which terms to highlight is questionable; e.g., "novels" is, but "trilogy" is not. A mix of full-color and black-and-white photos appears throughout the books, and the covers are eye-catching. The "Black Americans of Achievement" series (Chelsea House) offers more detailed biographies but are on a slightly higher reading level.Lucy Rafael, The Center for Early Education, West Hollywood, CABook Details
Published
January 1, 1997
Publisher
Heinemann Library
Pages
48
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780817239879