Book Review: THE VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION
*Note: this blog was created for a class at TWU
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Freedman, Russell. 2004. THE VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION: MARIAN ANDERSON AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL RIGHTS. New York, NY: Clarion Books.
2. PLOT SUMMARY:
With text, photographs, and ephemera, Russell Freedman's biography of Marian Anderson tells not only of this great African-American singer's life and career, but also of the changes her voice as a powerful and popular woman brought to segregationist and discriminatory policies of the United States in the 1920s through the 1960s.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
In my opinion, Russell Freedman is to biography writing as Ken Burns is to documentary filmmaking. Any topic he touches, Freedman makes personal, immediate, fascinating, and important. And with all his topics, he researches and documents his sources meticulously, but does not clog his prose with facts, but allows the theme to shine through. In his photobiography of Lincoln, the thematic thread was that, from the beginning, Lincoln's image often obscured the real man. I remember how well he described details such as Lincoln's household, with his son Tad's goat sleeping in the same bed with the boy, and the way Freedman lined up photographs of Lincoln from the time he was elected to his last year in office so the weight of leading the country could be seen etched into the president's face as time passed. These same techniques, those of personalizing detail, insightful photographs, and a thought-provoking theme are also employed in A VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION.
As the title implies, Freedman focuses on the theme of challenge in Marian Anderson's life. He begins A VOICE not at her birth, as many biographies would, but at a crucial point in her life, her concert at the Lincoln Memorial before 75,000 people. And Freedman does not begin with a description of Anderson herself or her singing, but with the weather and the atmosphere in the crowd. He has placed the reader right there, squeezed in with the young mothers, Boy Scouts, and businessmen, all waiting to hear the woman who had sung for royalty, but who had been denied access to the Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution simply because of her race. The reader sees her on the steps, lonely and vulnerable, until she opens her mouth to sing.
Throughout the next chapters, Freedman does go back to the beginning, and we learn that Marian Anderson had trained for that moment her entire life. From her single-minded focus on singing, to her travels to Europe to train, this great woman challenged the ideas of what a woman, an African-American, and above all, an African-American woman could and should do with her life. She refused to marry until she was good and ready, and even then chose not to have children. When she did marry, she married a white man (although he was a high school sweetheart). Upon her return from Europe, she chose to keep her Finnish accompanist, also a white man, in spite of warnings that American audiences, particularly in the South, would not accept a white man in that role. Even in her choice of music, she challenged the mores of the day, singing opera right along with gospel favorites.
While relating the events of Anderson's life, Freedman always brings the reader back to the voice, the power of Marian's voice. He does this with lyrics from the songs she sang, eyewitness commentary on hearing her in concert, and clippings of newspaper articles, recital program, and candid photographs. Finishing this book, I felt that I had not only learned a lot about Marian Anderson's life and United States history, but also about the power of following your heart and being true to yourself.
I wish everyone wrote biographies like Russell Freedman, and every time a student checks out that horrible biography we have on Nelly, I want to say, "That's not a biography, this is a biography," and put A VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION into the student's hands. Sadly, Marian Anderson's biography hasn't ever been checked out of the library, not even by a teacher since it was purchased three years ago. But it will be this year, because I have plans for this book - I will feature it during Black History Month in February, play her music in the library, read an excerpt from it during announcements, and display it prominently along with Walter Dean Myers' biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. I'VE SEEN THE PROMISED LAND.
A VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION has won several awards including the Robert F. Sibert Medal and is a Newbery Honor Book.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S):
School Library Journal: "This inspiring work once again demonstrates Freedman's talent for showing how a person's life is molded by its historical and cultural context."
Booklist: "In his signature prose, plain yet eloquent, Freedman tells Anderson's triumphant story, with numerous black-and-white documentary photos and prints that convey her personal struggle, professional artistry, and landmark civil rights role."
5. CONNECTIONS
* This, I think, would be a perfect mentor text for any biography unit. Short enough to be read aloud to a class using a document camera, the class could discuss how the book was organized structurally - by starting with a "snapshot" to grab the reader, then telling the person's life chronologically, as well as thematically, focusing on the "challenges" Anderson faced. I would then have students choose someone in their lives to write a biography on, structuring it similarly, and choosing a thematic thread (a list of character traits and thematic words could be supplied for those who might struggle with choosing one.) Once the biographies were written, students could present them, perhaps in multimedia format (PPT), to an audience of classmates and family, inviting the subjects of the biography if possible.
*Note: this blog was created for a class at TWU
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Freedman, Russell. 2004. THE VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION: MARIAN ANDERSON AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL RIGHTS. New York, NY: Clarion Books.
2. PLOT SUMMARY:
With text, photographs, and ephemera, Russell Freedman's biography of Marian Anderson tells not only of this great African-American singer's life and career, but also of the changes her voice as a powerful and popular woman brought to segregationist and discriminatory policies of the United States in the 1920s through the 1960s.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
In my opinion, Russell Freedman is to biography writing as Ken Burns is to documentary filmmaking. Any topic he touches, Freedman makes personal, immediate, fascinating, and important. And with all his topics, he researches and documents his sources meticulously, but does not clog his prose with facts, but allows the theme to shine through. In his photobiography of Lincoln, the thematic thread was that, from the beginning, Lincoln's image often obscured the real man. I remember how well he described details such as Lincoln's household, with his son Tad's goat sleeping in the same bed with the boy, and the way Freedman lined up photographs of Lincoln from the time he was elected to his last year in office so the weight of leading the country could be seen etched into the president's face as time passed. These same techniques, those of personalizing detail, insightful photographs, and a thought-provoking theme are also employed in A VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION.
As the title implies, Freedman focuses on the theme of challenge in Marian Anderson's life. He begins A VOICE not at her birth, as many biographies would, but at a crucial point in her life, her concert at the Lincoln Memorial before 75,000 people. And Freedman does not begin with a description of Anderson herself or her singing, but with the weather and the atmosphere in the crowd. He has placed the reader right there, squeezed in with the young mothers, Boy Scouts, and businessmen, all waiting to hear the woman who had sung for royalty, but who had been denied access to the Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution simply because of her race. The reader sees her on the steps, lonely and vulnerable, until she opens her mouth to sing.
Throughout the next chapters, Freedman does go back to the beginning, and we learn that Marian Anderson had trained for that moment her entire life. From her single-minded focus on singing, to her travels to Europe to train, this great woman challenged the ideas of what a woman, an African-American, and above all, an African-American woman could and should do with her life. She refused to marry until she was good and ready, and even then chose not to have children. When she did marry, she married a white man (although he was a high school sweetheart). Upon her return from Europe, she chose to keep her Finnish accompanist, also a white man, in spite of warnings that American audiences, particularly in the South, would not accept a white man in that role. Even in her choice of music, she challenged the mores of the day, singing opera right along with gospel favorites.
While relating the events of Anderson's life, Freedman always brings the reader back to the voice, the power of Marian's voice. He does this with lyrics from the songs she sang, eyewitness commentary on hearing her in concert, and clippings of newspaper articles, recital program, and candid photographs. Finishing this book, I felt that I had not only learned a lot about Marian Anderson's life and United States history, but also about the power of following your heart and being true to yourself.
I wish everyone wrote biographies like Russell Freedman, and every time a student checks out that horrible biography we have on Nelly, I want to say, "That's not a biography, this is a biography," and put A VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION into the student's hands. Sadly, Marian Anderson's biography hasn't ever been checked out of the library, not even by a teacher since it was purchased three years ago. But it will be this year, because I have plans for this book - I will feature it during Black History Month in February, play her music in the library, read an excerpt from it during announcements, and display it prominently along with Walter Dean Myers' biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. I'VE SEEN THE PROMISED LAND.
A VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION has won several awards including the Robert F. Sibert Medal and is a Newbery Honor Book.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S):
School Library Journal: "This inspiring work once again demonstrates Freedman's talent for showing how a person's life is molded by its historical and cultural context."
Booklist: "In his signature prose, plain yet eloquent, Freedman tells Anderson's triumphant story, with numerous black-and-white documentary photos and prints that convey her personal struggle, professional artistry, and landmark civil rights role."
5. CONNECTIONS
* This, I think, would be a perfect mentor text for any biography unit. Short enough to be read aloud to a class using a document camera, the class could discuss how the book was organized structurally - by starting with a "snapshot" to grab the reader, then telling the person's life chronologically, as well as thematically, focusing on the "challenges" Anderson faced. I would then have students choose someone in their lives to write a biography on, structuring it similarly, and choosing a thematic thread (a list of character traits and thematic words could be supplied for those who might struggle with choosing one.) Once the biographies were written, students could present them, perhaps in multimedia format (PPT), to an audience of classmates and family, inviting the subjects of the biography if possible.
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