Africana Woman: Her Story Through Time

Shared story time w/my daughter and grand daughter. Really appreciate the vivid images, and detailed EASY TO READ text. Great collectors item. A must have for everyone's library.

This is a rich browsing book. It presents a diverse array of Africana women, from those you'd expect (images of slavery, for example, or famous people like Oprah) to those that might surprise you; my favorite features two sportingly-dressed Nebraskan women at the turn of the century, smiling broadly as they hoist some trophy-sized fish. Such everyday images of black women just aren't part of our collective memory, and it's a delight to find them here. Most of the images are half page, many are full page, making it useful for classrooms.I'm withholding the fifth star because I'm not as thrilled with the text as I am with the images, and several places made me pause. For example, in a section about black women as mistresses to powerful white men, we find the Jefferson/Hemings story. The text says this:"In 1998, DNA evidence proved that Jefferson most likely sired one, if not more, of Hemings's children."But the sidebar says this:" Although some people still debate the issue, DNA evidence has shown that a Jefferson - it could have been Thomas's brother - fathered at least one child by Hemings."One wonders why the sidebar vacillates by introducing "Thomas's brother" when even the research scholars at Monticello agree (as stated at their web site monticello.org):"The DNA study, combined with multiple strands of currently available documentary and statistical evidence, indicates a high probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered Eston Hemings, and that he most likely was the father of all six of Sally Hemings's children appearing in Jefferson's records."But still, this is a wonderful book for libraries, as teachers will find it a useful supplement and students will find much to inspire projects and reports. (...)