Picture Book to Commemorate “I Have a Dream” Anniversary

By John Sellers -- Publishers Weekly, 1/24/2008 3:34:00 AM

Scholastic has signed a picture book written by Christine King Farris, the sister of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to be published on the 45th anniversary of his march on Washington and his “I Have a Dream” speech, which he delivered on August 28, 1963. The book, March On!: The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World, will be illustrated by London Ladd. Andrea Davis Pinkney, v-p and editor-at-large at Scholastic, negotiated the deal with Jennifer Lyons at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency.

Christine King Farris. 
Photo: AlexJonesPhotography

This year also marks the 40th anniversary of King’s death; this August, a statue of King will be unveiled on the National Mall in Washington, the first to honor an African-American. Pinkney had these anniversaries and this occasion in mind when she approached Farris about the book a year ago. “I thought, ‘You know, there’s never been a book about the March on Washington, and that speech that changed all of us,’ ” the editor recalls. “What was it like for Martin Luther King Jr.’s sister to see her younger brother delivering this speech that changed the world?” Pinkney told Farris that she would love her to write about her and her family’s experiences that day, and Farris agreed. “It was that simple,” Pinkney says. “I get goosebumps when I think about it.”

Farris, a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., had previously written a picture book, My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., illustrated by Chris Soentpiet (S&S, 2003), which focused on the siblings’ childhood. Her new book will cover the emotional impact of seeing her brother speak from the podium. “[King’s family] knew it was important, and that it was going to be special,” Pinkney says, “but when they experienced these thousands of people coming to hear what Martin had to say.... The [book’s] subtitle is The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World, but they as a family were changed.”

Pinkney describes the book’s coming together as a smooth process. “She was writing about something very personal, so it was very easy from that standpoint. It came very naturally to her.” The next order of business was to find an illustrator, and for that, Pinkney found inspiration in Dr. King’s speech. “Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, and that was the dream of opportunity,” she says. “As a viable expression of opportunity, I wanted to welcome a new talent into our fold.” March On! will be artist London Ladd’s first picture book. “I knew it had to be someone who could deliver monumental, emotionally charged paintings that are beautiful, and that’s what London has delivered,” says Pinkney. “That’s what the event was—monumental, emotionally charged and beautiful.”