From Booklist
Reviewed with Anne Faulkner's Mao Zedong and Liz Gogerly's Sigmund Freud.Gr. 6-10. Three new titles from the Twentieth Century History series are informative if not equally well written. Mao Zedong and Sigmund Freud are dull and dutiful. In contrast, the Mandela book is one of the best of the many recent YA biographies of the great South African leader. It's accurate and eloquent about the man and the political struggle, and it has dramatic, well-chosen news photos of both. The series design is inviting, with clear type in double columns, lots of full-page photos throughout, a lengthy chronology, and a useful glossary. What's missing in all the books is adequate documentation; the books include only a brief bibliography, and there are no source notes--not a good model for the middle- and high-school report writers who will use these titles. Hazel Rochman
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Book Description
Rolihlahla Mandela was born in 1918 in South Africa's Transkei territory. His first name could be interpreted as "trouble-maker." The name Nelson was added later by a primary school teacher. Following a boyhood filled with rural pursuits, Mandela prepared for a legal career. He received a law degree in 1942. He and a friend opened the first black law partnership in South Africa that same year. During his time at college, Mandela first became involved in student protest against white colonial rule and set out on the long walk toward personal and national liberation. Despite years of daily exposure to the inhumanities of apartheid, Mandela opted for nonviolence as a strategy. He joined the Youth League of the African National Congress and became involved in programs of passive resistance against the laws that forced blacks to carry passes and kept them in a position of permanent servility. In 1956, Mandela, along with other leaders of the ANC, was tried for treason, but he was acquitted in 1961. At around that same time, the ANC was banned. Mandela went underground for about a year but was arrested in 1962, convicted of sabotage and conspiracy, and was sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, Mandela assumed his full responsibility as a leader in the fight for a democratic and free society for all people. After two decades as the most famous prisoner in the world, Mandela began secretly negotiating not only his own release, but also South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. After his release from prison in 1990, Mandela began the hard work of uniting a divided people. He urged conciliation, not violence, and was elected president of South Africa in 1994, in the first truly open national election in which all races could vote. He retired as president in 1999. Named TIME Man of the Year in 1993, and one of Time's 100 Most Important People of the Century, Mandela himself has said "I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances."

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Sarah Nelson

Kramer presents an involved history of the life of Nelson Mandela for the "Twentieth-Century History Makers" series, complete with a detailed chronology of the political struggles of South Africa. Apartheid, racism, and European dominance paired with Mandela's non-violent opposition are themes that emerge from the struggles of the people of South Africa. Kramer deals at length with Mandela's interest in politics, the people whom he worked with, as well as the conditions and extent of his imprisonment. Kramer is frank and impartial in her assessment of Mandela's struggle for equality in South Africa and his attempt to govern the country in its post-apartheid state. The book is well written and packed full of complicated facts regarding various ethnic groups, political organizations, and movements within South Africa. Helpful maps and photographs are included throughout the book to familiarize the reader with Nelson Mandela and those people and places surrounding his journey. A glossary and timeline help the reader become familiar with difficult terms and to place events within a meaningful context. This would be a necessary addition to a middle school or high school library and a worthy resource for a middle school or high school unit on civil rights. 2003, Raintree Steck-Vaughn/Harcourt,

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