Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library

Name: Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library
Brand: Dreamscape Media
Availability: InStock
Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
ISBN: 9781520087290

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford

Narrator: Ron Butler

Unabridged: 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Published: 12/12/2017

Categories: Children's Nonfiction, African American & Black Nonfiction

Synopsis

Amid the scholars, poets, authors, and artists of the Harlem Renaissance stood an Afro-Puerto Rican named Arturo Schomburg. This law clerk's life's passion was to collect books, letters, music, and art from Africa and the African diaspora and to bring to light the achievements of people of African descent throughout the ages. When Schomburg's collection became so big that it began to overflow his house (and his wife threatened to mutiny), he turned to the New York Public Library, where he created and curated a collection that was the cornerstone of a new Negro Division. A century later, his groundbreaking collection, known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, has become a beacon to scholars all over the world.

About Carole Boston Weatherford

Carole Boston Weatherford has written many award-winning books for children, including Kin, illustrated by her son Jeffery and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient; Box, which won a Newbery Honor; Unspeakable, which won the Coretta Scott King Award, a Caldecott Honor, and was a finalist for the National Book Award; Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; ALA Notable Children’s Book You Can Fly; and Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Carole lives in North Carolina. Visit her at CBWeatherford.com.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Edward on August 27, 2017

I love the subject matter so I wish the narrative here were better executed. Weatherford's choice to introduce famous African Americans detracts from Schomberg's story and the whole narrative seems rather text heavy for a picture book biography.......more

Goodreads review by Morris on November 10, 2019

This is a fascinating biography that makes excellent use of illustrations and verse. Mr. Schomburg, while the subject, is only one of the people covered. There are many other figures from black history, along with works of art and The Harlem Renaissance. I cannot recommend this one enough. This unbia......more

Goodreads review by Kirsten on November 07, 2017

This verse biography of Arturo Schomburg is intended for children and teens, but I absolutely recommend it to everyone. Weatherford poetically and succinctly tells the life story and accomplishments of this truly remarkable individual. Schomburg was an Afro-Puerto Rican book collector whose work to......more

Goodreads review by Alicia on January 24, 2018

What a beautiful homage, though very text heavy for a picture book, about Schomburg's love of literature for the simple fact that it would build the African history that was assumed to not exist or be whitewashed. Schomburg could not tolerate the idea that African history would not be collected, sha......more