What Color Is My World?: The Lost History Of African-American Inventors

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This book was written by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and illustrated by Raymond Obstfeld along with A.G. Ford and Ben Boos. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played basketball for the Milwaukee Bucks (1969-1975) and for the Los Angeles Lakers (1975-1989), helping his teams win six NBA Championships. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. He also holds the records for the most field goals (15,837) and the most minutes played (57,446). Abdul-Jabbar gave the game the skyhook, considered basketball's most classic, and lethal, offensive move. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995. Since retiring, Abdul-Jabbar has been an actor, basketball coach, and an author, focusing on history. In 2012 he was selected as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador. [1]

Summary

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball legend and the NBA's alltime leading scorer, champions a lineup of little-known African-American inventors in this lively, kid-friendly book.

An interesting book tells about the black inventors and innovators. Did you know that James West invented the microphone in your cell phone? That Fred Jones invented the refrigerated truck that makes supermarkets possible? Or that Dr. Percy Julian synthesized cortisone from soy, easing untold people's pain? These are just some of the black inventors and innovators scoring big points in this dynamic look at several unsung heroes who shared a desire to improve people's lives. Offering profiles with fast facts on flaps and framed by a funny contemporary story featuring two feisty twins, here is a nod to the minds behind the gamma electric cell and the ice-cream scoop, improvements to traffic lights, open-heart surgery, and more inventors whose ingenuity and perseverance against great odds made our world safer, better, and brighter. [2]

Pros

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the authos spoke up about this book, he said he was motivated by the fact that the history books he had when he was in grade school, especially if African-Americans were mentioned, it was only in relation to aspects of slavery and the civil rights movement. There’s so much more to the story. It’ s his attempt to fill in some of the blanks. [3]

A reader named Sharon Lawler rated this book four stars becaus she really appreciate this collection of biographies about African American inventors and scientists. The layout of the book differs from the norm in that the clues about the contributions of these scientists are tucked into a fictional story with the actual biographical information available on sidebars that usually fold out. Sources are listed in the back. In an age when athletes seem to be every child's benchmark of success, this book is also notable because it is coauthored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who holds the record for scoring the most points during his career in the NBA. [4]

References