August 11, 2008
In a series of open letters to parents, educators, young people, Dr. King—with whom she collaborated on the 1968 Poor People's Campaign—and her own grandchildren—Edelman (The Measure of Our Success
), founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, addresses the millions of children silently suffering from abuse, abandonment and poverty. The author passionately inveighs against parental and community neglect (“Adults are what's wrong with our children,” she writes); however, her rhetoric, marked by repetitive calls for change and use of jargon like “the Cradle to Prison Pipeline,” is an ineffective vehicle for her good intentions, and the text—long on grim statistics—occasionally reads uncomfortably like a grant proposal. Her book comes to life when the author reminisces about her childhood and rousingly condemns government's support of the nation's richest citizens. Readers seriously concerned about the plight of American children may find many concrete suggestions for action, but the slew of numbers and lack of personal stories in the opening sections will certainly dissuade many others.
October 1, 2008
Edelman (founder, Children's Defense Fund; "The Measure of Our Success"), educator and civil rights activist, here continues the themes of her earlier works. Framed as a series of open letters to dead, future, and hypothetical readers, the book asks all of us to consider what we have accomplished and what we have yet to accomplish for the next generations of children. Each letter-chapter is punctuated by prayer. Many readers, across race and faith lines, will find inspiration and food for thought. To coincide with the 35th anniversary of the Children's Defense Fund; for most collections.
Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2008
To the frequently asked questionWhats wrong with todays children?Edelman, founder of the Childrens Defense Fund, responds with a resounding Adults are whats wrong with our children. She follows up her best-seller, The Measure of Our Success (1992), with another impassioned plea for adults to do something about the crushing hardships faced by too many American children. In each chapter, Edelman addresses letters to parents, teachers, neighbors, community leaders, and others, outlining the issues of poverty, illiteracy, neglect, and abuse that children face and how adults can ameliorate the suffering of children. In the chapter aimed specifically atthe kind of poverty that feeds children directly into prison, the Cradle to Prison Pipeline, Edelman offers a nine-step program, including increasing tax relief for poor families, broadening early childhood education programs, and reforming the juvenile justice system. Following the format of her previous book, she addresses an encouraging, loving, and inspirational letter to her grandchildren and the generations of children born along with them and to come after. Edelman intersperses devastating statistics (black women in the U.S. are more likely to die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth than mothers in Turkmenistan) with passionate argumentsand sound policy ideasfor eliminating poverty and achieving racial and social justice. An inspirational and practical perspective on ameliorating childhood poverty.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)