Mandela: From the Life of the South African Statesman

by Floyd Cooper

Few figures have inspired as much respect or admiration as Nelson Mandela. From his childhood in the South African countryside, to his election as the first black president in South Africa's history, Mandela's extra-ordinary life is a story of courage, persistence, hope and belief. Celebrated author/artist Floyd Cooper delivers "a forceful, credible picture of a strong and deeply devoted statesman" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Genres: Biography, Africa, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, South Africa, Cultural

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Floyd Cooper was an American children's book illustrator and author who focused on Black history. He received a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations in Joyce Carol Thomas' The Blacker the Berry. He also received several Coretta Scott King Honors for his illustrations.

Reviews

[Lauren Waters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains beautiful illustrations and outlines the life of Nelson Mandela from boyhood to adulthood. I wish the book would have provided more details regarding his politics and service to humanity.

[Sarah Hurdelbrink · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book captures Nelson Mandela's life through a combination of informative, narrative text and well illustrated scenes. Beginning with his childhood and detailing his experiences in school and then to his work to end apartheid after becoming a lawyer, his life is expressed in its entirety, including information about his education, politics, family and personal life. Mandela is shown to be an activist fighting for social justice and what he believes to be right throughout his life, starting when he was a student. This book serves as an excellent example of a man who never compromised his ideals, and the small acts of resistance that eventually helped him to achieve justice and equality for all within his country.

[Hannah Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really neat book! I am very interested in learning about Nelson Mandela so I enjoyed reading this. I appreciated how the book started from Nelson’s childhood instead of later on in his life. I think it could of even gone more in depth on this later life. I would definitely add this book to my future classroom library.

Genre: Biography
Reading level: 5-6

[Congetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love picture books and I love picture book biographies for children and adults. I still maintain that a children's/middle grade/young adult biographies with pictures are a good way to learn how to read a biography. You have images which can help illustrate the story especially when there is a lot of text or background information. They are generally told in a more story format and not in boring, just-the-facts textbook style. You can introduce this type of literature or genre to younger people while learning about it yourself.

The illustrations were nice, but I prefer more crisp images. I learned a lot of Mandela especially his young life which makes sense as this was written for a younger learner. It was interesting to learn about his royalty background. This would be a good intro for a biography about his adult life. This book tried to cram much of his adult life in a handful of pages, so it definitely leaves you wanting more detail. However, it probably should be in a separate book.

Once thing I found interesting was that even though African Blacks had fewer rights than whites, I was surprised they could still go to law school like Mandela, open a law firm like Mandela etc. This was an interesting contrast for me. It likely stood out to me as this was the information that was provided to me. Perhaps this was to emphasize that Blacks had rights like whites, but they couldn't be integrated with whites. Everything had to be separate, hence the name apartheid. I definitely would like to learn more about this.

I do recommend this introduction biography on Mandela.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mandela: from the Life of the South African Statesman by Floyd Cooper tells the life story of the first South African president of the new government in 1990, Nelson Mandela, from the time he was a child to the time he was elected president. The beautiful illustrations in this book are realistic, yet dreamy, provoking emotion in its depictions of Nelson Mandela’s life and the background of South Africa. This book is written more towards older elementary students and depicts a truly inspirational leader who “stands firm” in his belief and what is right. It is an inspiring read for young readers who wish to become leaders who stand up for justice in their own lives.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

A starter book for late-elementary school students. Easy to read. Very nicely painted pictures behind all the text reminiscent of what you see on this cover. Really too short, ending with his release in 1990 from prison. Copyright 1996, so greatly lacking in his legacy.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

From royal roots, young Nelson Mandela leaves his family to be educated, and always stood firm for what he believed to be fair and right.

Liked the story but the palette was a bit too muddy and made reading the text somewhat difficult for me.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story that talks about Mandela's life up until he was elected President of South Africa. I like that it gave a history of his life and showed how he was able to accomplish what he did by strong character and education.

Again, Floyd Cooper's book has beautiful illustrations.

[Jess Hewell · Rating 5 out of 5]

good, very insperational

[Katie Frakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book because of all of the beautiful illustrations throughout. The illustrations were large, oftentimes covering whole pages, and very detailed. For example, even before reading the text, I was able to look at the pages and determine how the characters were feeling based off of the detail of the illustrations showing their emotions. However, I really didn’t feel like this book told very much about what Mandela accomplished in his life or what he stood for because it spent so much time describing little details that didn’t seem very important to me. With that being said, I still feel like this book would be beneficial for students in upper elementary or lower middle school grades to read because Mandela is a big part of our country’s history and this book does give a lot of background information about him. This information would be helpful to know before starting a project, so this would be a good book to read before beginning anything.

[Julie Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I definitely don't recommend this one. Cooper dwells on insignificant and outright boring details of Mandela's life and glosses over everything that is most important and interesting. The narration is more poetic than the more straightforward picture book, "Peaceful Protest" by McDonough & Zeldis, but to no effect. Yes, this one has beautiful illustrations and use of symbolism, but I finished the book thinking this is who Mandela was: a man who stood up for what was right, didn't like apartheid, was unjustly thrown in prison, and then became the first elected president of South Africa. Really, that's it. What's all the fuss? Good thing we had another book handy to get the real scoop.

[Amy Dennehy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. I thought the information in the book was great and very detailed. Also the illustrations were beautiful. They were large and covered the whole page, while providing emotion and explanation into what the characters were feeling. However, I felt there was a lack of personal voice throughout the book. I believe the author spent too much of the book capturing the small details of Mandela’s life instead of focusing on what he really stood for. I think this would be a good book for a 3rd-6th-grade class, as it introduces great information about segregation. However, when reading this book, I believe further discussion about Mandela will be needed to fully understand what he went through.

[Brooke Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this book provided a very insightful look into the life of Nelson Mandella. To be truthful, I had very little knowledge about Nelson Mandella prior to reading this book. However, I gained a great detail of information as I read. My only complaint was that the book failed to really go into very much detail about his years in prison or his life after prison. I feel like those years are very important to understanding his place in history. If the book would have followed up on his later years, I would have got even more out of it. Otherwise, it was a well written and illustrated book.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is a powerful story detailing the life, career, and imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. I would recommend this book for second grade and above classrooms. The language of the book is complicated enough to be a challenge but also simple enough to keep students from getting discouraged. This book has a powerful message and can inspire students. It is a great story and can show students the things that can be accomplished through perseverance. It also has many lessons about equality of all mankind.

[Elisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this book because it told the story of Nelson Mandela, I knew about his life up to when he went to prison but not his childhood. I liked it a lot, because we got to see his journey of growing up and getting an education. I didn't know that his dad was his influence for nit ever giving up, but you see after his fathers death that it meant a lot to him. I loved reading about his accomplishments after he was released from prison, and how his dreams never died. This book about Mandela would be great for any student, even I learned many new facts about his life.

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well written and beautifully illustrated picture book biography for young readers about Nelson Mandela, Civil Rights Leader and first elected black President of South Africa. This would be a wonderful addition to any grade school library or classroom.

[LeAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This richly illustrated summary of former South African president Nelson Mandelas life emphasizes his rural beginnings and exposes children to the realities of a racist society.

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[Moe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't as good as the other book I read about Nelson Mandela because it didn't give as much information. But the pictures were better.

[Jodi Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Nelson Mandela gives a simple overview of his life.

[Madeline Wakem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nelson Mandela's childhood, his love for education and human rights is told in this wonderfully illustrated picture book.