Celebrate Martin Luther King day with these kid's biographies

My Brother Martin by Christine King Farris

Long before he became a world-famous dreamer, Martin Luther King Jr. was

a little boy who played jokes and practiced the piano and made

friends without considering race.  But growing up in the segregated South of

the 1930's forced a very young Martin to learn a bitter lesson-little white

children and little black children were not to play with one another.

Martin decided then and there that something had to be done.  And as a

seven-year-old, he embarked on a journey that would change

the course of American history.

A Nation's Hope: the story of boxing legend Joe Lewis  by Matt De La Pena

Once a boyhood dream, now a people's hope.

The weight of history hangs on Joe's shoulders.

On the eve of World War II, African American

boxer Joe Louis fought German Max Schmeling in a

bout that had more at stake than just the world heavyweight

title; for much of America their fight came to represent the

country's war with Germany.

Mandela by Floyd Cooper

Few figures have inspired as much respect or loyalty

as Nelson Mandela.  From his boyhood days in the South

African countryside, to his time as a leader of the African

National Congress, to his twenty-seven years in prison, Mandela

would come to rail against the system of apartheid - and would

eventually help abolish it, becoming the first black

president in South Africa's history.

His is a story of courage and persistence, a story of hope and belief.  

It is the story of how the son of a tribal chief rose to become one

of the most prominent political figures of our time.

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni

Rosa Parks is one of the most famous figures in American

history.  On December 1, 1955, she got on a Montgomery, Alabama, city 

bus after work and refused to give up her seat to a white man, an act that

sparked a revolution.  Suddenly, Mrs. Parks became the center of one

of the most important events in the battle for civil rights.  This is

the story of that event, and of a woman whose quiet determination

changed our history.