What do you think?
Rate this book
Feed Your Mind: A Story of August Wilson
A celebration of August Wilson’s journey from a child in Pittsburgh to one of America’s greatest playwrights
August Wilson (1945–2005) was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who had a particular talent for capturing the authentic, everyday voice of black Americans. As a child, he read off the soup cans and cereal boxes, and when his mother brought him to the library, his whole world opened up. After facing intense prejudice at school from both students and some teachers, August dropped out. However, he continued reading and educating himself independently. He felt that if he could read about it, then he could teach himself anything and accomplish anything. Like many of his plays, Feed Your Mind is told in two acts, revealing how Wilson grew up to be one of the most influential American playwrights. The book includes an author’s note, a timeline of August Wilson’s life, a list of Wilson’s plays, and a bibliography.
August Wilson (1945–2005) was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who had a particular talent for capturing the authentic, everyday voice of black Americans. As a child, he read off the soup cans and cereal boxes, and when his mother brought him to the library, his whole world opened up. After facing intense prejudice at school from both students and some teachers, August dropped out. However, he continued reading and educating himself independently. He felt that if he could read about it, then he could teach himself anything and accomplish anything. Like many of his plays, Feed Your Mind is told in two acts, revealing how Wilson grew up to be one of the most influential American playwrights. The book includes an author’s note, a timeline of August Wilson’s life, a list of Wilson’s plays, and a bibliography.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2019
12 people are currently reading
418 people want to read
About the author
Jen Bryant
33 books100 followersJen Bryant (Jennifer Fisher Bryant) writes picture books, novels and poems for readers of all ages. Her biographical picture book: A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet,received a Caldecott Honor award and her historical novel in verse RINGSIDE 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial is an Oprah Recommended Book for ages 12 & up. Other titles include Pieces of Georgia (IRA Young Adult Choices Pick), The Trial (about the 1935 Lindbergh baby kidnapping trial), a 1960’s-era novel Kaleidoscope Eyes (a Jr. Library Guild selection), Georgia’s Bones, celebrating the creative vision of artist Georgia O’Keeffe, Music for the End of Time, based on a true story about WWII, and Abe’s Fish: A Boyhood Tale of Abraham Lincoln.
Jen has taught writing and Children’s Literature at West Chester University and Bryn Mawr College and gives lectures, workshops and school presentations throughout the year. She lives with husband, daughter and their Springer Spaniel in Chester County, PA.
Jen has taught writing and Children’s Literature at West Chester University and Bryn Mawr College and gives lectures, workshops and school presentations throughout the year. She lives with husband, daughter and their Springer Spaniel in Chester County, PA.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
July 23, 2022
I loved that August's mom, "Daisy reads to him at night, filling him up with stories, words, and hope: 'If you can read, you can do anything-you can be anything.'" August carries these words in his heart and eventually they are the catalyst for his continued self-education when bullies of all ages make it impossible for him to remain at school.
His local public library becomes his center of learning. When he starts a theater company with a friend "he goes to the library and reads a book on how to direct." The library expands his world and opens his mind to new possibilities. Next, he seeks human experiences through listening.
August works at a soup kitchen where he listens to men talking about how their "lives have come to less than they expected." He scribbles his thoughts and their words in "a collage of human voices" on scrap paper and napkins. He will make sure "they will be seen-and heard." He writes the play Jitney as a result and submits it to the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis where it is accepted.
His next play, Ma Rainey opened on Broadway in New York City in the fall of 1984. Another of his plays, Fences is currently being presented by American Blues Theater at Theater Wit in Chicago, IL.
His local public library becomes his center of learning. When he starts a theater company with a friend "he goes to the library and reads a book on how to direct." The library expands his world and opens his mind to new possibilities. Next, he seeks human experiences through listening.
August works at a soup kitchen where he listens to men talking about how their "lives have come to less than they expected." He scribbles his thoughts and their words in "a collage of human voices" on scrap paper and napkins. He will make sure "they will be seen-and heard." He writes the play Jitney as a result and submits it to the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis where it is accepted.
His next play, Ma Rainey opened on Broadway in New York City in the fall of 1984. Another of his plays, Fences is currently being presented by American Blues Theater at Theater Wit in Chicago, IL.
March 22, 2021
Jen Bryant writes beautifully inspiring stories and this is a new one, crafted with inspiration, too, by Cannaday Chapman in mixed media, including cut paper. August grew up with only his mother around, the only mention of his father is that he was not there. Early, early in August's life, he began to read. When his mother caught him reading, she took him to the library for his first library card. Within his story, that book reading became his life and the words he heard everywhere from working men sitting outside a cafe to those he served as he waited on them when he was older. Jen shows his frustrations at schools -- the attacks because he was black, the accusations of plagiarism because he was black, among other problems. He finally dropped out but as the title reads, "Feed Your Mind" became his life. In one part of the book, Jen describes his process of creating a play, in part, "Now he has a cast of black characters, spread across his floor, asking August to be sure they will be seen–and heard." The journey to the name August Wilson (his real name was Frederick August Kittel, Jr.) fascinates as August makes his way through words and poems, then plays. I've only read Fences but now I really look forward to seeing Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and discovering other plays. Like August, feeding the mind!
April 1, 2024
Beautiful! Wonderful illustrations and biography about playwright August Wilson. Great for a school lesson or anyone increasing their knowledge.
March 13, 2020
If you can read, you can do anything—you can be anything.”—Daisy Wilson
My father grew up in The Hill District of Pittsburgh; therefore, even though I am from a very different cultural background, I felt an immediate tie to August Wilson and his fascinating story.
Frederick August Kittle Jr., the son of a white German baker and Daisy Wilson, a black single mother who left school after sixth-grade, cleaned houses, and taught her four-year-old Freddy to read, overcame discrimination and poverty to become a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright.
Freddy left school twice when prejudice from classmates made it evident that he, the only black student, was not welcome in Central Catholic High and teachers at the public high school doubted his writing genius. Besides his mother, only Brother Dominic had faith in him, “You could be a writer.”
Freddy educated himself at the Carnegie Public Library though the works of such black writers as Hughes, Dunbar, Ellison, and Wright and the conversations of the Hill’s tribal elders—“warriors who survive in this hard world.” His job as a poet, and later as playwright, was “to keep [these voices] alive” though a collage of black characters from the Pittsburgh that never left him.
Through Jen Bryant’s verse biography, readers follow Freddy Kittle’s daily life as he grows into August Wilson, influenced by black writers and collage artist Romare Bearden and supported by fellow playwrights. Feed Your Mind, a picture book for MG/YA readers is hauntingly illustrated by Cannaday Chapman and includes a Timeline, Selected Bibliography, and list of Wilson’s plays.
Jen Bryant’s biographies also provide mentor texts for creative student biographical research and writing.
My father grew up in The Hill District of Pittsburgh; therefore, even though I am from a very different cultural background, I felt an immediate tie to August Wilson and his fascinating story.
Frederick August Kittle Jr., the son of a white German baker and Daisy Wilson, a black single mother who left school after sixth-grade, cleaned houses, and taught her four-year-old Freddy to read, overcame discrimination and poverty to become a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright.
Freddy left school twice when prejudice from classmates made it evident that he, the only black student, was not welcome in Central Catholic High and teachers at the public high school doubted his writing genius. Besides his mother, only Brother Dominic had faith in him, “You could be a writer.”
Freddy educated himself at the Carnegie Public Library though the works of such black writers as Hughes, Dunbar, Ellison, and Wright and the conversations of the Hill’s tribal elders—“warriors who survive in this hard world.” His job as a poet, and later as playwright, was “to keep [these voices] alive” though a collage of black characters from the Pittsburgh that never left him.
Through Jen Bryant’s verse biography, readers follow Freddy Kittle’s daily life as he grows into August Wilson, influenced by black writers and collage artist Romare Bearden and supported by fellow playwrights. Feed Your Mind, a picture book for MG/YA readers is hauntingly illustrated by Cannaday Chapman and includes a Timeline, Selected Bibliography, and list of Wilson’s plays.
Jen Bryant’s biographies also provide mentor texts for creative student biographical research and writing.
January 9, 2020
Any passionate reader will relate to August Wilson's childhood - reading the labels on jars and cans, signs in the street, his sisters' Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, anything he could get his hands on at the Hill District Branch of the Carnegie Library. As he grows older, he develops a passion for words - poetry, drama, and especially dialogue - that spurs him to create an astounding series of plays before the age of forty, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences. It's a wonderful coming-of-age story, but it doesn't gloss over the racism he experienced as a young student, first at a Catholic high school, then at a public school, leaving him disillusioned with higher education and determined to make his own way and create his own sense of community.
I loved his experience reading a quote from a book about Paul Lawrence Dunbar: "The words make his heart skip. Freddy reads right through supper, as all around him the world shifts, the universe opens wide." As a reader, he fed his mind, and as a poet and playwright, he feeds those of his readers and listeners.
Another wonderful quote is shared by the author at the end, from Wilson himself: "I don't write for black people or white people; I write about the black experience in America. And contained within that experience, because it is a human experience, are all the universalities."
I loved his experience reading a quote from a book about Paul Lawrence Dunbar: "The words make his heart skip. Freddy reads right through supper, as all around him the world shifts, the universe opens wide." As a reader, he fed his mind, and as a poet and playwright, he feeds those of his readers and listeners.
Another wonderful quote is shared by the author at the end, from Wilson himself: "I don't write for black people or white people; I write about the black experience in America. And contained within that experience, because it is a human experience, are all the universalities."
June 6, 2019
My only complaint is the length-- but when you're trying to do a biography "a story" of August Wilson or anyone, I understand the need to add more. But sometimes less is more. It was well-rounded in terms of focusing on his childhood and teenage years into how he became famous as a playwright, yet, it's definitely text heavy-- to the point that some of the artwork suffers when words are put onto the page because...
the artwork... is absolutely phenomenal in tone for the story. Truly the theme is how books opened his world (Carnegie Library gave him a diploma for the self-teaching that he did using the library). There are several spreads specific to this theme including "feasting" on books and the wild of library bookshelves that are breathtaking. Learning is forever. Words can be turned into careers that tell stories as his centuries plays do-- highlighting the decades of the 20th century for blacks in America.
It can introduce Wilson in a HS before reading the play, representation of black artists in the art or biography section, or celebrations for libraries and books.
the artwork... is absolutely phenomenal in tone for the story. Truly the theme is how books opened his world (Carnegie Library gave him a diploma for the self-teaching that he did using the library). There are several spreads specific to this theme including "feasting" on books and the wild of library bookshelves that are breathtaking. Learning is forever. Words can be turned into careers that tell stories as his centuries plays do-- highlighting the decades of the 20th century for blacks in America.
It can introduce Wilson in a HS before reading the play, representation of black artists in the art or biography section, or celebrations for libraries and books.
August 13, 2020
"If you can read, you can do anything---you can be anything."
Jen Bryant tells the story of the life of black playwright August Wilson. As a boy, he learned to read when he was very young, and his mother, not well educated herself, supported him by getting him a library card. He wrote poetry for many years, working at many small jobs to allow him to spend time writing. But he found fame when he began to write plays, becoming well known for his ability to write dialogue that was true to life.
Bryant tells of the playwright's life in little bursts of stories, shaped poetry/prose. I'm a huge fan of Jen Bryant, and Feed Your Mind may be one of her best works.
Jen Bryant tells the story of the life of black playwright August Wilson. As a boy, he learned to read when he was very young, and his mother, not well educated herself, supported him by getting him a library card. He wrote poetry for many years, working at many small jobs to allow him to spend time writing. But he found fame when he began to write plays, becoming well known for his ability to write dialogue that was true to life.
Bryant tells of the playwright's life in little bursts of stories, shaped poetry/prose. I'm a huge fan of Jen Bryant, and Feed Your Mind may be one of her best works.
March 12, 2020
Frederick August Kitel, Jr. was named after his white German father who earned his living as a baker and who abandoned him and his black mother.
Feed Your Mind is the story of playwright August Wilson that pissed me off because black kids in the 21st Center are still experiencing these same injustices while their parents continue to vote the very people in office who not only allows but encourages the injustices against their own people.
Feed Your Mind was a very good read.
Feed Your Mind is the story of playwright August Wilson that pissed me off because black kids in the 21st Center are still experiencing these same injustices while their parents continue to vote the very people in office who not only allows but encourages the injustices against their own people.
Feed Your Mind was a very good read.
January 9, 2020
Poet Jen Bryant has again created a nonfiction picture book for all ages of readers! This award-winning author whose many other books in this genre, i.e.: Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille and A Splash of Red: The Life & Art of Horace Pippin do have a different illustrator than her newest book. For this book about playwright, August Wilson, new artist Cannaday Chapman has used beautifully drawn mixed-media art to bring the reader into the text. The pictures spread over the pages to highlight the words written by Bryant. Detailed biographical timeline, notes, and a list of August Wilson's plays complete this information book at the end. Appropriate for readers, ages 10+.
June 13, 2021
Ooh, that Morton Salt incident made me so mad!
And the Napoleon paper.
But why mention Romare Bearden and not have actual works of his as part of the illustrations?
And why use the N word several times but not give the full title of Ma Rainey?
I'm not sure that any of my kids are going to be that into this book. Although I do like the message of how Wilson educated himself at the library. Ties into a discussion we had in second grade about Frederick Douglass. But this is not a second-grade book.
And the Napoleon paper.
But why mention Romare Bearden and not have actual works of his as part of the illustrations?
And why use the N word several times but not give the full title of Ma Rainey?
I'm not sure that any of my kids are going to be that into this book. Although I do like the message of how Wilson educated himself at the library. Ties into a discussion we had in second grade about Frederick Douglass. But this is not a second-grade book.
April 17, 2020
Feed Your Mind: A Story of August Wilson is a children's picture book written by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Cannaday Chapman. It is a biographical children picture book of one of America's greatest modern playwrights is introduced to generations of younger readers in this lyrical picture book.
August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Each work in the series is set in a different decade, and depicts comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the twentieth century.
Bryant's text is rather simplistic, straightforward, informative, and lyrical. Bryant's accomplished free verse celebrates the genius of Wilson the playwright while never losing sight of the complications, hardships, and imperfections of Wilson the man. Backmatter includes an author's note and timeline. Chapman's layered multimedia illustrations in muted primary colors adroitly combine pattern, line, and whimsy to transform telling details into revealing images.
The premise of the book is rather straightforward. August Wilson struggles with racist classmates, reading in the library after he drops out of school, choosing a pen name for himself, and shifting forms from poems to plays. Wilson's passion for words and attention to the world around him emerge in this wonderful biographical picture book.
All in all, Feed Your Mind: A Story of August Wilson is a wonderful and poetic biography of one the stage's greatest bards in modern history – August Wilson.
August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Each work in the series is set in a different decade, and depicts comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the twentieth century.
Bryant's text is rather simplistic, straightforward, informative, and lyrical. Bryant's accomplished free verse celebrates the genius of Wilson the playwright while never losing sight of the complications, hardships, and imperfections of Wilson the man. Backmatter includes an author's note and timeline. Chapman's layered multimedia illustrations in muted primary colors adroitly combine pattern, line, and whimsy to transform telling details into revealing images.
The premise of the book is rather straightforward. August Wilson struggles with racist classmates, reading in the library after he drops out of school, choosing a pen name for himself, and shifting forms from poems to plays. Wilson's passion for words and attention to the world around him emerge in this wonderful biographical picture book.
All in all, Feed Your Mind: A Story of August Wilson is a wonderful and poetic biography of one the stage's greatest bards in modern history – August Wilson.
February 6, 2023
Read as an ebook
I am slightly biased--anything about the love of reading and libraries is, most likely going to get a 5 star rating from me.
I read Feed Your Mind because it was recommended for Black History Month reading. I think I'd heart of August Wilson prior to read this book, but I can't recall where. Despite this, I deeply appreciate the fact that he continued to pursue his education as he saw fit, even as society threw one wrench after another. I do sort of wish he'd stuck it out at the Catholic school, where he had support from the principal and teachers, but I understand why he felt compelled to leave. That aside, August Wilson is proof that you do not necessarily need a traditional education to be history. He got his skill through hard work and learning, via reading, from the greats as well as took inspiration from the world around him. This, in itself, is genius.
I am slightly biased--anything about the love of reading and libraries is, most likely going to get a 5 star rating from me.
I read Feed Your Mind because it was recommended for Black History Month reading. I think I'd heart of August Wilson prior to read this book, but I can't recall where. Despite this, I deeply appreciate the fact that he continued to pursue his education as he saw fit, even as society threw one wrench after another. I do sort of wish he'd stuck it out at the Catholic school, where he had support from the principal and teachers, but I understand why he felt compelled to leave. That aside, August Wilson is proof that you do not necessarily need a traditional education to be history. He got his skill through hard work and learning, via reading, from the greats as well as took inspiration from the world around him. This, in itself, is genius.
August 6, 2020
There were two things that stuck out to me about this book. First, the art. I loved the style of art used in this book so much. The color palate was bright, yet still calm and soft.
The second was the writing itself. Each poem was a little vignette from August Wilson's life. While Bryant had to chose which details to include in this biography aimed at children, I still got the sense of the depth of experiences and talents Wilson had. And this shows how much research must have done before writing this book.
The second was the writing itself. Each poem was a little vignette from August Wilson's life. While Bryant had to chose which details to include in this biography aimed at children, I still got the sense of the depth of experiences and talents Wilson had. And this shows how much research must have done before writing this book.
December 1, 2019
Perfection! A 2019 fav!
July 8, 2020
Feed Your Mind : A Story of August Wilson by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Cannaday Chapman, PICTURE BOOK, BIOGRAPHY Abrams, 2019. $18. 9781419736537
Language: PG (2 instances of the "n" word).
BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
August Wilson was a very smart boy - he was reading by the age of 4, and was a smart student, but racial prejudice by both students and teachers, kept him from regularly attending school. He was a brilliant writer - loved writing poems. As an adult, he listened carefully to the conversations going on around him, writing down snippets and incorporating them into his writing - eventually using them in his plays.
It's a long read for a picture book. Too long for a read aloud - unless you do it in parts - Bryant has divided the story into acts, like a play. Chapman's illustrations are so expressive. I liked the use of shadow to direct the focus. It reads like a play with free verse narrative, and creative staging in the illustrations.Includes an author's note, an extensive timeline, bibliography and list of plays. The "n" word is used twice as August is confronted by racial prejudice.
Lisa Librarian
https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2020...
Language: PG (2 instances of the "n" word).
BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
August Wilson was a very smart boy - he was reading by the age of 4, and was a smart student, but racial prejudice by both students and teachers, kept him from regularly attending school. He was a brilliant writer - loved writing poems. As an adult, he listened carefully to the conversations going on around him, writing down snippets and incorporating them into his writing - eventually using them in his plays.
It's a long read for a picture book. Too long for a read aloud - unless you do it in parts - Bryant has divided the story into acts, like a play. Chapman's illustrations are so expressive. I liked the use of shadow to direct the focus. It reads like a play with free verse narrative, and creative staging in the illustrations.Includes an author's note, an extensive timeline, bibliography and list of plays. The "n" word is used twice as August is confronted by racial prejudice.
Lisa Librarian
https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2020...
Read
February 17, 2020I'm not sure of the target audience. It is quite long for a read aloud, but I would not feel comfortable giving this to a child to read alone due to the inclusion of the n-word, twice. The word also seems glossed over a bit, without any interrogation of the term or why the author chose to include it even in the back matter.
November 9, 2020
I had never heard of the playwright August Wilson before reading this. Maybe if I had prior knowledge, I would have enjoyed the book more. It's a picture book biography, but pretty heavy on the words. Best suited for junior high and beyond.
January 20, 2020
Very interesting format and well-written. Definitely skews older, like middle school.
January 29, 2020
When reading the Pittsburgh plays this summer, I was asked, why are you reading all those plays? This book answers that question better than I could.
December 23, 2021
This rich picture book biography of playwright August "Freddy" Wilson is written in two acts like many of his Pulitzer-prize winning plays. Pitched to advanced middle grade and young adult readers, the free-verse poems and realistic, mixed-media illustrations bursting with floating letters, musical notes, and images hovering over the pages of books and the conversations of the people in his community that inspired the dialogues in his plays, bring Wilson's work to a younger audience through the lens of his precocious younger self who longs for language and then struggles in the racially segregated public school systems in the 1950s.
After a teacher accuses Wilson of plagiarising a high school essay he wrote and cited throughout, Wilson creates a new path for his education. So many young people will find the concluding poem of Act One, "Prove It," painfully relatable, where a white teacher interrogates Wilson about the authenticity of his writing in an assignment, the not-so-micro-agressions faced by skilled, articulate young people of color in schools and society throughout the twentieth century and beyond. In Act Two, there is a new beginning for Wilson's talents, opening with "Row," breaking Wilson out of the unjust walls of the classroom into the vibrant, book-lined stacks super-imposed by images of crop rows at the Carnegie Public Library:
"If you can read, you can do anything." That's what Mother,
who had to quit school to work the crop rows
with her mother, said. Now, walking through these rows, Freddy
feels the weight of that story. He turns the corner
...and there! Hughes, Dunbar, Ellison, Wright -- books by black
writers...
And there are more: W. E. B. Dubois, Arna Bontemps, James Baldwin,
Booker T. Washington -- A mother lode of black literature,
a treasure he's aching to explore...("Rows").
Here Wilson finds his own mentors to harvest by voraciously reading seminal books by Black authors every day rather than going to school. He find comfort and strength in the lines of Ellison's Invisible Man. He stores these words up to fuel his plays in the future.
As much an ode to libraries and literature as biography, Feed Your Mind can be read and enjoyed as a springboard into Wilson's theater career and Black literature in general. Very much wroth reading the extensive timeline, notes for author Bryant's poems, and reading lists to dig deeper into Wilson's influences. I discovered many new works to read, including Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Ode to Ethiopia" which influenced Bryant's poem "Detour" in Act One when Wilson finds his first shelf of Black writers:
"One day, on the way home from the park,
he detours, bouncing his basketball to the door
of the Hazelwood Library. Inside, he finds
thirty or forty titles lined up on a shelf
labeled "Negro Books."
He mouths the names on the spines:
Hughes, Dunbar, Ellison, Wright.
The basketball becomes a chair,
the Dunbar book open on his lap:
"Be proud, my Race, in mind and soul;
Thy name is writ onn Glory's scroll
In characters of fire."
No wonder these words made his "heart skip." These words and Wilson's work have helped the world of theatre and poetry shift, opening the universe wide for more Black artists and all. readers to follow.
After a teacher accuses Wilson of plagiarising a high school essay he wrote and cited throughout, Wilson creates a new path for his education. So many young people will find the concluding poem of Act One, "Prove It," painfully relatable, where a white teacher interrogates Wilson about the authenticity of his writing in an assignment, the not-so-micro-agressions faced by skilled, articulate young people of color in schools and society throughout the twentieth century and beyond. In Act Two, there is a new beginning for Wilson's talents, opening with "Row," breaking Wilson out of the unjust walls of the classroom into the vibrant, book-lined stacks super-imposed by images of crop rows at the Carnegie Public Library:
"If you can read, you can do anything." That's what Mother,
who had to quit school to work the crop rows
with her mother, said. Now, walking through these rows, Freddy
feels the weight of that story. He turns the corner
...and there! Hughes, Dunbar, Ellison, Wright -- books by black
writers...
And there are more: W. E. B. Dubois, Arna Bontemps, James Baldwin,
Booker T. Washington -- A mother lode of black literature,
a treasure he's aching to explore...("Rows").
Here Wilson finds his own mentors to harvest by voraciously reading seminal books by Black authors every day rather than going to school. He find comfort and strength in the lines of Ellison's Invisible Man. He stores these words up to fuel his plays in the future.
As much an ode to libraries and literature as biography, Feed Your Mind can be read and enjoyed as a springboard into Wilson's theater career and Black literature in general. Very much wroth reading the extensive timeline, notes for author Bryant's poems, and reading lists to dig deeper into Wilson's influences. I discovered many new works to read, including Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Ode to Ethiopia" which influenced Bryant's poem "Detour" in Act One when Wilson finds his first shelf of Black writers:
"One day, on the way home from the park,
he detours, bouncing his basketball to the door
of the Hazelwood Library. Inside, he finds
thirty or forty titles lined up on a shelf
labeled "Negro Books."
He mouths the names on the spines:
Hughes, Dunbar, Ellison, Wright.
The basketball becomes a chair,
the Dunbar book open on his lap:
"Be proud, my Race, in mind and soul;
Thy name is writ onn Glory's scroll
In characters of fire."
No wonder these words made his "heart skip." These words and Wilson's work have helped the world of theatre and poetry shift, opening the universe wide for more Black artists and all. readers to follow.
October 26, 2020
Biography of August Wilson, whom I recognized about halfway through, although it was before he became a playwright -- good golly, I just read Fences this year, I am so terrible at names. It's about a boy urged into literacy by his mother, who early discovers a love of words and books, using them to access people and understandings that connect his world to a universe of ideas and humanity. But schools try to block these connections -- first the racist Catholic school, then the poor academics at the trade school, and finally teachers who refuse to accept his work at the public school. He becomes an autodidact, learning from books at the public library. His sister pays him for a term paper and he buys a typewriter and starts on his poems, and later his plays.
The illustrations treasure reading and libraries, and the text evokes the language of his works, deliberately offering readers a sophisticated understanding of literature, creativity, and the poetic process. I like how the pages are grounded in realism but allow metaphoric flourishes that echo the collage nature of Wilson's work.
The back matter includes an essay by the author on how she became inspired by Wilson's plays, a timeline of his life, and notes on where the quotations are referenced, and a bibliography.
I of course especially appreciate this as a love letter to libraries. Teachers don't come out as well.
The illustrations treasure reading and libraries, and the text evokes the language of his works, deliberately offering readers a sophisticated understanding of literature, creativity, and the poetic process. I like how the pages are grounded in realism but allow metaphoric flourishes that echo the collage nature of Wilson's work.
The back matter includes an essay by the author on how she became inspired by Wilson's plays, a timeline of his life, and notes on where the quotations are referenced, and a bibliography.
I of course especially appreciate this as a love letter to libraries. Teachers don't come out as well.
Read
June 11, 202454: Feed Your Mind: A Story of August Wilson by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Cannady Chapman
This is a wonderful children's book...and which could easily be read to older students prior to teaching any of Wilson's works. I wish I'd known of it back when I taught Fences in AP Lit.
But its value is not at all limited to that specific situation or circumstance, either. It's about valuing reading and writing, about finding one's way in the world to pursue the interests and passions developed. It's a heartfelt and interesting story that taught me things about Wilson that I hadn't previously known.
Another thought I have is having students turn their own lives into a children's story. What would be shared, and what wouldn't be? What "lessons" have been learned that could benefit someone else? Life is lived forward but understood only backward, according to Kierkegaard...and that might be a great post-exam project for AP kids.
I recommend you check this one out the next time you take the littles or grandlittles or neighbors or friends to the library. OR treat someone you love to a copy for a birthday or no reason at all.
Actually...what I'd like to do is make clear that children's books are truly not for children only! Let's normalize reading them together, adults included.
This is a wonderful children's book...and which could easily be read to older students prior to teaching any of Wilson's works. I wish I'd known of it back when I taught Fences in AP Lit.
But its value is not at all limited to that specific situation or circumstance, either. It's about valuing reading and writing, about finding one's way in the world to pursue the interests and passions developed. It's a heartfelt and interesting story that taught me things about Wilson that I hadn't previously known.
Another thought I have is having students turn their own lives into a children's story. What would be shared, and what wouldn't be? What "lessons" have been learned that could benefit someone else? Life is lived forward but understood only backward, according to Kierkegaard...and that might be a great post-exam project for AP kids.
I recommend you check this one out the next time you take the littles or grandlittles or neighbors or friends to the library. OR treat someone you love to a copy for a birthday or no reason at all.
Actually...what I'd like to do is make clear that children's books are truly not for children only! Let's normalize reading them together, adults included.
September 8, 2020
A celebration of August Wilson’s journey from a child in Pittsburgh to one of America’s greatest playwrights
August Wilson (1945–2005) was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who had a particular talent for capturing the authentic, everyday voice of black Americans. As a child, he read off the soup cans and cereal boxes, and when his mother brought him to the library, his whole world opened up. After facing intense prejudice at school from both students and some teachers, August dropped out. However, he continued reading and educating himself independently. He felt that if he could read about it, then he could teach himself anything and accomplish anything. Like many of his plays, Feed Your Mind is told in two acts, revealing how Wilson grew up to be one of the most influential American playwrights. The book includes an author’s note, a timeline of August Wilson’s life, a list of Wilson’s plays, and a bibliography.
August Wilson (1945–2005) was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who had a particular talent for capturing the authentic, everyday voice of black Americans. As a child, he read off the soup cans and cereal boxes, and when his mother brought him to the library, his whole world opened up. After facing intense prejudice at school from both students and some teachers, August dropped out. However, he continued reading and educating himself independently. He felt that if he could read about it, then he could teach himself anything and accomplish anything. Like many of his plays, Feed Your Mind is told in two acts, revealing how Wilson grew up to be one of the most influential American playwrights. The book includes an author’s note, a timeline of August Wilson’s life, a list of Wilson’s plays, and a bibliography.
March 12, 2022
A beautifully told biography about the youth of this amazing playwright who died too young...
The formative years of August Wilson's life are fleshed out in this amazing picture book biography. Bryant's free verse narrative is respectful, emotional, and informative. She hits the highlights of many events that informed and framed his writing. A simple and lovely tribute. I especially appreciate that she named artists and authors/poets who influenced his work. Backmatter includes a detailed timeline, source notes, a selected bibliography, and list of plays by August Wilson.
Artwork by Cannaday Chapman was rendered using ink, colored pencil, acrylic paint, and cut paper - with final layouts assembled and colored in Adobe Photoshop.
Add this to studies on African American artists, importance of libraries in the community, and playwrights.
Highly Recommended for grades 3-8.
The formative years of August Wilson's life are fleshed out in this amazing picture book biography. Bryant's free verse narrative is respectful, emotional, and informative. She hits the highlights of many events that informed and framed his writing. A simple and lovely tribute. I especially appreciate that she named artists and authors/poets who influenced his work. Backmatter includes a detailed timeline, source notes, a selected bibliography, and list of plays by August Wilson.
Artwork by Cannaday Chapman was rendered using ink, colored pencil, acrylic paint, and cut paper - with final layouts assembled and colored in Adobe Photoshop.
Add this to studies on African American artists, importance of libraries in the community, and playwrights.
Highly Recommended for grades 3-8.
May 1, 2020
Excellent picture book biography, mostly of the playwright's childhood and how he became a writer. Born in Pittsburgh--white father, black mother--his single mom raised him. He learned to read at age 4! And always devoured books. Having trouble in school from racism, then accused of plagiarizing a report by teacher who didn't believe he could write so well, Wilson dropped out--he'd been in several different schools by then--and spent his days in the library, reading everything he could get his hands on. He moved to Minnesota later, was encouraged to write plays instead of poetry, and turned one of his poems into his first play. Never looked back from there. His work always reflected the Pittsburgh voices he heard growing up. Gorgeous artwork in this book, wow! Includes an author's note and extensive bibliography. Winner of the 2020 Sugarman Children's Biography Honor Award.
February 17, 2021
This book, apart of the 2019 Notable Children's Books in Language Arts, is a biography on August Wilson's brilliant life. It tells about his journey to being a successful playwright and how he got there. It's presented as a timeline, great for kids in understanding the chronological order of life. It would also be great for a child's biography object, as it is very educational on Wilson's life! The multimedia illustrations are beautiful and fun to look at. I would be excited to have a book like this in my classroom, with its rhythm and content. It would be good for kids as it tells stories of racial hardships, talents in reading and writing, and the overall premise of growing up and following your dreams. Loved it!
July 30, 2022
Illustrations were phenomenal - I would actually give that a 5 on its own. But the text is a bit too wordy and too much information for a picture book biography, but would be a phenomenal middle grade bio or even YA. I didn’t like the formulaic timeline approach either, it could be more creatively delivered. Finally, the use of the N word is such that the back matter could have provided more support and background for this which teachers or parents can use to address it. It seems like it was just including it for provocation of some kind and needed to be more thoughtfully included or not at all.
September 7, 2024
God bless the library for having a booth at a street fair so I could read this stunning children's book.
This book is written in two acts and reads like one long gorgeous poem. It is highly inspiring, though also heartbreaking. Both halves portray the challenges which August Wilson faced. Beautiful illustrations are on every page. August Wilson took the hand he was dealt in life and swept the table.
Also, how have I studied Wilson's plays through my high school and college career, yet never read any fully? Or seen them? This is an error I will work to correct in the next year.
This book is written in two acts and reads like one long gorgeous poem. It is highly inspiring, though also heartbreaking. Both halves portray the challenges which August Wilson faced. Beautiful illustrations are on every page. August Wilson took the hand he was dealt in life and swept the table.
Also, how have I studied Wilson's plays through my high school and college career, yet never read any fully? Or seen them? This is an error I will work to correct in the next year.
June 23, 2020
A story that needs to be told. What this young man went through needs to be understood. Racism exists. It impacted his education. He had to deal with being the only black student in schools. The treatment he received from his white classmates was too hard to deal with every single day! He dropped out. His thirst for reading and learning was never halted. He eventually became a playwright and even won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work!
October 16, 2021
This is an inspiring biography of August Wilson, for smart children, adolescents, and adults. I liked how much of his life story was included, it felt like the authors respected readers who want to know as much as possible. For very young children, parents could read selected portions. This book is likely to motivate people to learn to read, or teach themselves how to write, or motivate people to go see the plays that August Wilson wrote.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews