Mahatma Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography for Young People Book

With the film Harriet coming out, my spouse bought this used book from the Habitat for Humanity Restore to put out in our front-yard Little Free Library. I enjoyed reading this book to refresh my knowledge of Harriet Tubman from decades ago when I used to teach American Literature classes.

This "Time for Kids" biography includes interesting black-and-white photographs of Tubman, slave life, and the Civil War years, as well as colorful contemporary drawings depicting events in her life. The story provides information about the amazing arc of Tubman's life, from her childhood duties as a slave through her Underground Railroad years and service as a nurse and scout to Union soldiers during the war, to her care for elderly African Americans in her own senior years. I found the layout, however, to be an ADHD distraction, with double-page spreads divided into several sections, photographs, sidebars, and a variety of fonts. But this would probably be enticing to elementary school kids in ways that it is not to a 61-year-old woman. The "Talking about Harriet" chapter at the end, featuring an interview with Christine King Farris, older sister of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is so generic as to be worthless. (When asked what Tubman and MLK had in common, Farris replied, "They were both leaders. Leaders are people who are not afraid to take a stand for what they believe." Nonetheless, this book provides a solid introduction to Harriet Tubman and informative background on slavery for younger children.