A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation

ISBN: 0823443310

Author: Wittenstein, Barry

Condition: New

As a new generation of activists demands an end to racism, A Place to Land reflects on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and the movement that it galvanized.Winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for ChildrenSelected for the Texas Bluebonnet Master ListMuch has been written about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 1963 March on Washington. But there's little on his legendary speech and how he came to write it.Martin Luther King, Jr. was once asked if the hardest part of preaching was knowing where to begin. No, he said. The hardest part is knowing where to end. "It's terrible to be circling up there without a place to land."Finding this place to land was what Martin Luther King, Jr. struggled with, alongside advisors and fellow speech writers, in the Willard Hotel the night before the March on Washington, where he gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech. But those famous words were never intended to be heard on that day, not even written down for that day, not even once.Barry Wittenstein teams up with legendary illustrator Jerry Pinkney to tell the story of how, against all odds, Martin found his place to land.An ALA Notable Children's BookA Capitol Choices Noteworthy TitleNominated for an NAACP Image AwardA Bank Street Best Book of the YearA Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young PeopleA Booklist Editors' ChoiceNamed a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library JournalSelected for the CBC Champions of Change Showcase