The Voice That Challenged a Nation: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

This book was written for young adults, but it is an excellent introduction to Marian Anderson, her tremendous five-octave voice, and how her voice and life became part of the civil rights movement. Whether singing opera or spiriturals, she can move you to feel music and its emotion, not just hear it. Check out some of her recordings - though not all her albums are available, some of the ones that are still allow you to experience her impact. I can never hear "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty..." without thinking of her, and this book reveals some of the emotions behind her singing this song at the Lincoln Memorial. SpiritualsNegro Spirituals 1924-1949

This will be a much shorter review than others have entered, but I did want to say that I was so happy to have come upon this version of the Marian Anderson story. It fills a niche for a biography for middle level students that illustrates the drama of Anderson's life. What an amazing woman, and how beautifully Patterson writes her story. It is a wonderful exemplar of high quality writing for students and equally interesting for any adult.

This is an amazing biography of black singer Marian Anderson and the contributions she made to the struggle for equal rights in the United States of America. The book is emotional and well written. Furthermore, Sharon Washington does an excellent job of narrating the book in a way that keeps you interested. The writing is directed to middle grade children (ages 8-13), but I feel that people of any age could benefit from reading this book.

Arrived early and it Is very interesting book.

Very fast shipping and excellent condition. Very informative! This worked very well for a class I needed it for and is a great product to have apart of a home library. I really love this book. I would recommend it definitely.

We used this for a book report at school. Easy to read, even for a 3rd/4th grader. It showed an interesting aspect of Black American History that people normally don't know about

This is a great book with wonderful visuals. I used this to teach african american history in elementary and middle school

"This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, 'My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'"And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!"Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!"Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!"But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!"Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!"Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring..."--Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963Dr. King must surely have had a thought or two of Marian Anderson as he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on that historic afternoon and delivered those words.Many of us know Marian's basic story:Marian Anderson was a helluva singer.Despite being celebrated in Europe as the voice of a century, and despite having the strong support of the President's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marian Anderson was denied the opportunity to perform in Constitution Hall in Washington, DC because it was owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and those ladies didn't allow no black folks to be singing in their hall. That refusal led to Marian performing instead from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for a crowd of 75,000 people on the Mall and a nationwide radio audience.She stood up tall where Martin would stand a quarter-century later and led off her performance with a rendition of My County 'Tis of Thee.Her performance is seen as a historic event at the dawn of the modern Civil Rights movement.Two years ago, Pam Munoz Ryan and Brian Selznick created the stunningly beautiful 40 page picture book, WHEN MARIAN SANG (Scholastic Press, 2002), which won all sorts of awards including a Sibert Honor.Now Russell Freedman has written a beautiful and more detailed biography of Marian Anderson which will similarly captivate readers with its engaging text and its clear, oversized photographs of the singer herself and of supporting characters in the story of Marian Anderson.The most precious of those supporters were also some of the earliest. Through the chapters focusing on her earliest years, I was moved by Freedman's portrayal of how Marian's childhood community came through time and time again to insure that her dreams would not be in vain:"Again there was no money for lessons. Most of Marian's earnings from concert appearances went to her mother, who was still taking in laundry and scrubbing floors, and to her sisters, who were still in school. And again the congregation at Union Baptist Church came to Marian's aid, organizing a benefit concert that raised $566 so that she could study with Boghetti."Equally moving is the subplot of her life that involves Orpheus Fisher:"I don't wanna wait in vain for your love" --Bob MarleyHaving had to quit school after eighth grade in the wake of her father's death, Marian did not complete high school until she was twenty-four. It was during her delayed high school years--back when America was engaged in the First World War--that Marian met Orpheus Fisher who, "like her, was still in high school. He fell for the shy singer with the soft laughter and huge sparkling eyes who was almost as tall as he..."Decades later, America was midway through the Second World War when Marian finally relented and married Orpheus, who has tirelessly and faithfully pursued her all those years, while she was single-mindedly focused on her career.And what a career it was:"During one ten-month period she gave 123 concerts in fifteen different countries, performing a repertoire that included over two hundred songs and arias in German, Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, and other languages."It must have been amazingly disheartening for Marian Anderson to return home from entertaining European royalty and once again come face to face with Jim Crow. Like black sports stars of that era, Marian faced dangerous and humiliating conditions when traveling and performing around some regions of our "sweet land of liberty." And yet, in photos, she appears both to have left that all behind and to be channeling some kind of higher power as she sings." 'It was music-making that probed too deep for words.' "Marian Anderson remains a symbol of the historic fight to let freedom ring for all Americans. In VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION, Russell Freedman goes far beyond the symbolic to provide us a memorable look at the life of a singer whose talents knew no bounds.

perfect book