Mama Africa! How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope With Her Song by Kathryn Erskine

MUSIC GETS DEEP INSIDE ME AND STARTS TO SHAKE THINGS UP!

Miriam Makeba, a Grammy Award-winning South African singer, rose to fame in the hearts of her people at the pinnacle of apartheid--a brutal system of segregation hauntingly similar to the American Jim Crow laws. Mama Africa, as they called her, raised her voice to help expose these injustices at jazz clubs in Johannesburg, in exile at a rally beside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and before the United Nations. Her decades-long campaign played an important role in the fight to dismantle apartheid, which was finally abolished in 1990. But Miriam's global activism continued with the day of her death.
   Told with an urgency that is present on every page, this biography offers young readers an intimate view of Miriam Makeba's fight for equality. National Book Award-winner Kathryn Erskine's call-and-response style text and Charly Plamer's bold illustrations come together in a raw, riveting duet of protest song and praise poem. Here is a testament to how a single voice has the power to shake up the world--and an invitation for readers to join in.