Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson (review)

Part biography and part paean to South Africa’s great civil rights activist and leader, this picture book provides an introductory review of Mandela’s journey from promising child educated by tribal elders and in formal schools, to a lawyer and activist in the era of apartheid, to underground civil rights agitator and political prisoner, and ultimately to South African president. Nelson moves swiftly from milestone to milestone and occasionally runs a bit ahead of his young audience with undefined terms (Rolihlahla, Qunu, Madiba, and Xhosa appear within eight short lines) or an odd lapse from concrete to figurative language (“The ancestors sent their daughter Winnie to stand next to Nelson”). The heroic tone of Nelson’s text is well matched by photorealistic portraiture and formal composition. A closing note retells the tale in plainspoken prose, which may serve as a welcome assist to children who find the more poetic format challenging, and it takes the biography a little farther to include Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize. Complex aspects of Mandela’s life and work are unaddressed, but there’s little else available to introduce one of the era’s great men to youngsters, and this is a dramatic encounter indeed; a brief appended list of print sources can help audiences fill out the picture.