The African-American Century (print)
The African-American Century (print)
Grades: 7+ | Subject(s): Biographies, African-American | Overall rating: 8
The African-American Century is one of the biographical books we have in our library collection. The book offers students a brief biography and insight into the contribution of various
African-Americans who have made an impact on our lives. The book is organized by century and features key African-American leaders who made a large impact on our society during the twentieth century.
The book is organized by decades and African-American leaders are listed alphabetically within each decade. At the beginning of the book, each decade is listed with a listing of the
African-American leaders featured during that decade. There are approximately ten leaders featured per decade.
For the purposes of this research project, I examined the biographical information for Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson, and Oprah Winfrey. The information about each person was brief, but informative also. It had several pictures for each person; however, all the pictures were black and white. The text was easy to read, interesting, and logically organized.
I assigned a value of 8 for this resource for two reasons. First, I felt the book should have included at least some color pictures. Or, the authors/publishers could have at least changed the formatting a little for each person. While making the book identical for each person created some sort of unity, it also seemed a boring and stagnant way to present the information. The people discussed within the book changed our world, but the book seemed mediocre and boring. Secondly, I believe students would rather find this information in an online source. While I understand everyone does not have access to the internet, and there is a place for this book, the information could have been better presented in an online format with videos, images, sounds, and other interactive tools.
Book Source:
Gates, H., & West, C. (2000). The African-American century: How Black Americans have shaped our
country. New York: Free Press.
Grades: 7+ | Subject(s): Biographies, African-American | Overall rating: 8
The African-American Century is one of the biographical books we have in our library collection. The book offers students a brief biography and insight into the contribution of various
African-Americans who have made an impact on our lives. The book is organized by century and features key African-American leaders who made a large impact on our society during the twentieth century.
The book is organized by decades and African-American leaders are listed alphabetically within each decade. At the beginning of the book, each decade is listed with a listing of the
African-American leaders featured during that decade. There are approximately ten leaders featured per decade.
For the purposes of this research project, I examined the biographical information for Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson, and Oprah Winfrey. The information about each person was brief, but informative also. It had several pictures for each person; however, all the pictures were black and white. The text was easy to read, interesting, and logically organized.
I assigned a value of 8 for this resource for two reasons. First, I felt the book should have included at least some color pictures. Or, the authors/publishers could have at least changed the formatting a little for each person. While making the book identical for each person created some sort of unity, it also seemed a boring and stagnant way to present the information. The people discussed within the book changed our world, but the book seemed mediocre and boring. Secondly, I believe students would rather find this information in an online source. While I understand everyone does not have access to the internet, and there is a place for this book, the information could have been better presented in an online format with videos, images, sounds, and other interactive tools.
Book Source:
Gates, H., & West, C. (2000). The African-American century: How Black Americans have shaped our
country. New York: Free Press.