This month’s Author Spotlight creators are authors Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long, who adapted King: A Life by Jonathan Eig for young adults.
Listen to the interview with Yohuru and Michael below!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Yohuru Williams is a professor of history and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. A regular contributor to a variety of media programming on CNN and History, he is the author of numerous books, including Teaching US History Beyond the Textbook, Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson, Black Freedom Fighter, and More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (which was longlisted for the National Book Award). The former chief historian of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, he appeared in Ken Burns’s Jackie Robinson documentary and was one of the hosts of Sound Smart, the History Channel’s popular YouTube program. His educational videos on civil rights, social movements, and other historic events have garnered over 1 million views. He lives in Minnesota.
Michael G. Long has a Ph.D. from Emory University and is the author or editor of numerous books on nonviolent protest, civil rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. His books for children include Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson, Black Freedom Fighter; More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (which was longlisted for the National Book Award); and the picture book Unstoppable: How Bayard Rustin Organized the March on Washington.
ABOUT THE BOOK
King: A Life (Young Adult Edition)
by Jonathan Eig; adapted for young adults by Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long
Ages 12-18
Hailed as “the most compelling account of [Martin Luther] King’s life in a generation” by the Washington Post, the Pulitzer Prize–winning bestseller is now adapted for young adults in this new standard biography of the most famous civil rights activist in American History.
Often regarded as more of a myth and legend than man, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was many things throughout his storied life: student, activist, preacher, dreamer, father, husband. From his Atlanta childhood centered in the historically Black neighborhood of Sweet Auburn to his precipitous rise as a civil rights leader on the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery, Dr. King would go on to become one of the most recognizable, influential, and controversial persons of the twentieth century.
In this fast-paced and immersive adaptation of Jonathan Eig’s groundbreaking New York Times bestseller readers will meet a Dr. King like no other: a committed radical whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime, a minister wrestling with his human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government.
The inspiring young adult edition of King: A Life highlights the author’s never-before-seen research—including recently declassified FBI documents—while reaffirming and recontextualizing the lasting effects and implications of MLK’s work for the present day. Adapted by National Book Award–nominated authors Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long, this biography for a new generation is a nuanced, unprecedented portrayal of a man who truly shook the world.
PRAISE FOR KING: A LIFE (YOUNG ADULT EDITION)
A Junior Library Guild Selection
“This searching study leaves King’s shining legacy intact, all the more admirable for its attachment to a fallible man who is glimpsed here behind the icon. A frank and nuanced character study.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Decades of Martin Luther King Jr. biographies may suggest that there’s no uniquely compelling approach left to documenting the life of the oft-lionized civil rights leader, but award-winning biographer Eig frames this adapted edition as an effort to make Dr. King ‘a person, not just a monument, not just a holiday, not just Mr. I-Have-a-Dream.’ . . . While the backmatter offers the meat for potential Black history month book reports (e.g., extra facts, a timeline), a strength of this young readers’ edition is how it whets the appetite for further exploration of this invaluable historical moment as well as Little Mike himself.” —BCCB
“Eig, along with Williams and Long, presents a comprehensive time line of Martin Luther King’s entire life, from birth to untimely death . . . By describing who King was as a person and how he came to achieve what he did, this supports young readers’ journeys to not just read about King but to understand him.” —Booklist
“An honest and engaging account of King. Harsh truths about the state of the country, as well as the difficulties endured by persons of color, underscore how far the U.S. has come, and still has to go, on the journey to achieve King’s dream . . . A good choice to middle and high school biography shelves.” —School Library Journal
