Lovely, lovely, lovely book by a sister about her brother. The love and admiration that Christine King Farris feels for her brother comes across so beautifully on every page in this book.My niece and nephew both really enjoyed My Brother Martin. My niece began studying MLK Jr. in school last year, so she is aware of who this man was and of what he did. She really enjoyed learning about what he was like as a child, and she enjoyed seeing that he was once just a normal kid, just like her and her brother. There is a quote in the book where MLK Jr. says to his mother, "Mother Dear, one day I'm going to turn this world upside down." When I read this sentence I was very moved. When I read it aloud to the kids later, I think it moved my niece too. With no prompting she said, "Hm. He sure did, didn't he, Amy? That's pretty cool." I think she was very impressed with how from a young age MLK Jr. seems to have been determined to make a difference.
Even my four-year old nephew enjoyed this book. He engaged with and listened to the entire story, and while I'm sure he didn't understand much (if any) of the issues surrounding segregation, he did understand that this was a story about a little boy, his sister, his brother, and about the things they did together as kids. Both kids laughed at the pranks that the King kids pulled, and they were excited to hear that they played Monopoly, Chinese checkers, ran around with the neighborhood kids in the yard, and liked to go down to the firehouse and check out the fire trucks and firemen. Farris did an excellent job of getting kids to connect with her and her brothers. She pulled MLK Jr. off of the pages of a history book and made him real for kids.
For me this book was perhaps one of the most touching and profound things I've ever read about MLK Jr., and I so appreciate that Christine King Farris decided to open up her heart and her childhood and tell us about her baby brother M.L.