Rockridge PressThe Story of Strong Black Men 5 Book Box Set: Inspiring Biographies for Young Readers (The Story of: Inspiring Biographies for Young Readers)

I love this set. I bought it for my grandson, he’s 9. Every chance I get I will teach and give him information on his black history.

I have hundreds of kids' books, and these are some of the best kids' books I've seen in a long time!They're chapter books, so I haven't had time to read every book entirely yet. I started with John Lewis because he's the one I'm most interested in knowing more about. I've read half of it so far, and I'm already impressed.The books are good quality paperbacks packaged inside a thick and sturdy cardboard sleeve. The books are pretty up-to-date. Three of them have copyright dates of 2021, and the other two are 2020.My review is mostly based on the John Lewis book, since that's the one I've read most so far, but the other books in this set are similar.The books are well written and are not awkwardly worded like a lot of kids' books tend to be.I enjoyed the inclusion of the John Lewis chicken-preaching story! I'd heard about that during an MSNBC segment about Lewis a few years ago, and it is definitely a memorable story that kids will like to read. The John Lewis book goes all the way through his death in 2020.The John Lewis book mentions a lot of the most famous events of the Civil Rights movement, so that will probably prompt questions from young kids who may be hearing those names, places, and events for the first time. Some of these events involve deaths, so parents may want to determine whether or not it's a good day for their kids to read about those events, and parents may want to read the book with the kids the first time so they are available to answer the kids' questions or to talk about how the kids feel about those events, since some kids may worry that the same could happen to them.The book also has questions for the kids to think about; on the sides of some of the pages are highlighted facts about John Lewis (or whoever the book is about), followed by a related question for the reader to answer. For example, "John had to choose between working on the farm and going to school. Have you ever had to make a hard choice?" There are also "Myth & Fact" boxes, some maps, some time lines, and a John Lewis family tree. The last chapter consists of 10 multiple choice questions about the reading. The end has a glossary; glossary words are highlighted when they first appear in the book text. All of these extras are good for reluctant readers, since the kids can skim the book first to develop an interest and then read the text.I LOVE that the book includes a bibliography. Sometimes kids' books leave out the bibliography, but it's more important than ever for early readers of non-fiction to learn that they can fact-check information in multiple sources rather than trusting something 100% just because it's in one book. (I haven't had time to do any fact-checking myself yet, by the way, so I can't comment on the books' accuracy.)The book also includes an About the Author and About the Illustrator page, along with photos. The five books in the set have four authors (one author wrote two of the books) and five different illustrators. Even though each book has a different illustrator, the pictures are similar enough in style that they still look consistent as a set.The only illustrations I don't like are the ones in the Barack Obama book; the pictures in that book are VERY corporate art style, which I personally just can't stand to look at. But the writing is good, and since these are chapter books, the writing is most important.The books contain few photos. The John Lewis book has no photos of him, just drawings, but there are two small photos of Civil Rights Movement events. Each book has two or three photos in the multiple choice question section at the end and photos of the authors and illustrators, but there are no other photos in the books.When I saw this book set available as a Vine item, I ordered the books with the intention of reading them with the children of my friend. The three siblings are ages 7 to 9; two are black and one is white. The kids have known since they were very young how to explain to curious classmates the way they became a family through adoption. Their parents also talk to the kids about Civil Rights history and related topics. The kids tend to think very deeply about any topic and ask questions, and the kids are open about any concerns they have, so I think these books are written in a way that is just right for their minds. I think the kids and their parents will love these books as a way to learn more, to see mentions of new topics that they want to learn about, and to understand the world better.

As a current school teacher, who was teaching English language arts, and as a former homeschooling mother for 18 years, I support literacy and wish that all children and adults were literate in our society. I feel that cultural literacy is important to building a unified society. I feel that it is important for children to learn about people and how they persevered through adversity, and the successes that they had so that they can serve as a role model in some way to our nation’s children. I believe that when children read and learn from biography books, it is important. Therefore, I applaud this series.This is an educational series of children’s biographies, which does not talk down to kids. This biography book series states that this is for “new readers ages6-9” and it has short chapters filled with small cartoon style illustrations, sidebars, cartoon style maps, and chunked, broken up timelines.However, the long word count of the book often contains details, which while thorough to my adult mind, may slow down the momentum and pace of the story and may lose reader engagement. In some of the books, the young American child will lack the context to understand what is trying to be communicated.As an adult, I have time to myself and it takes me 13 minutes to read the story. I’m not sure how long it would take a “new reader”.There are different authors in the series, and some of them attempt to explain the vital background knowledge while other authors, just breeze by complex topics. As a teacher to students in grade 6–8, I identify issues in almost every book in the series, where even my eighth graders will become confused, lost, and will lose engagement or give up and stop reading, or not learn the message the author is trying to communicate.This is a set about black men who are role models. I applaud this series.

My kids love this box set that it filled with information, illustrations and questions. You can go a lot of of different directions with what you want to focus on with the books from vocabulary to historical facts. I love how colorful they are and they are perfect for an elementary student doing research for a class project and/or who is curious about learning about these important historical figures.

We have several of these biographies of various notable people so we were excited to get a box set focusing on notable Black men. The books are educational and thorough but still accessible for young readers. There are several chapters spanning the lives of the subjects and breakout boxes with discussion questions and other features along the way to reinforce the information in the book and help kids think about how they would react or feel in similar situations. There are plenty of colorful graphics throughout the book to hold young reader's attention and a glossary of terms at the back of the book. These truly are excellent books for kids as the transition from the "learning to read" phase to the "reading to learn" phase of education.

This is a great collection of books for young readers. I'd say it's more geared for the 8-10 year age but it depends on the reading level of the child. Each book features a different Black rights activist. The men featured in this 5 book collection are John Lewis, Jackie Robinson, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack Obama.The books are about 60 pages in length and include color illustrations. There's a quiz at the end to test out what the child learned from reading the book. There's also some discussion questions geared for critical thinking and a glossary of terms is also included in each book.