Doreen Rappaport and illustrator Bryan Collier have used the actual words of Martin Luther King, Jr. very powerfully in telling his life story in Martin’s Big Words.  Collier explained that because churches were such a major focus and metaphor for King as a minister and proponent of non-violence, he chose to use the imagery of stained glass windows for their many colors, representing many races, and to use imagery such as four candles in the last picture to “represent the four girls who were killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church” in Birmingham.  He blended such painted imagery with collage to “piece together” the many events of King’s life.

Rappaport chose to use words for the text in a sparse but forceful manner.  King’s world as a child is filled with reminders of segregation such as the “WHITE ONLY” signs everywhere that made him feel bad.  His mother’s reminder that “You are as good as anyone” supports and encourages him.  Inspired by the “big words” in his father’s preaching, Martin dreams of using such words himself, and, of course, it is his own speeches that will eventually stir a nation to social change.  In bold print throughout the story are quotations from Martin Luther King, Jr.  “Hate cannot drive out hate.  Only love can do that. . . . Love is the key to the problems of the world. . . . Sooner or later, all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together.”  And, finally, his “I Have a Dream” speech is quoted in which he envisions an Alabama in which “little black boys and black girls will join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”  Although his life is cut short by an assassin’s bullet, Rappaport reminds her young readers that “His big words are alive for us today.” 

Included in Martin’s Big Words are a chronology of important dates in King’s life and a list of suggested additional books and notes about the use of the more than 200 related Web sites, including the King Center in Georgia.  Rappaport and Collier have shown clearly how the text of Dr. King’s speeches and the facts of his life can be bound together through symbolic illustrations and sparse text to create a very moving piece of literature.