Listen To My Dream by Debi Pearl

In December of 2009, Pearl Books, LLC published a book for children called Listen To My Dream about Martin Luther King, Jr. that was written by Debi Pearl.

The book takes the form of a poem that tells the story of King's life from when he was a child until he died. In the beginning of the book he has a discussion with his mother about why he has black skin and looks different from some of the other kids. They also talk about how blacks are treated differently than whites. Then after speaking with one of his teachers about the importance of having a dream and helping others, he decides this is what he wants to do.

Listen to My Dream covers the fact that blacks were discriminated against and didn't have the same rights as white people did, and how Dr. King became involved in the movement for civil rights. The bus boycott that he helped to start after Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat, as well as the many protests, marches, speeches and organizing work the he did is also included in the book. The difficulties he faced due to his work are not ignored, and the fact that his family was threatened and he was stabbed and threatened with death, as well as the many times he was arrested, play a part in the narrative. The supreme court ruling of 1956 that made this type of discrimination illegal shows that his efforts were effective.

The forty page book is split into two sections, the first of which is the poem that is illustrated and meant for children, and the second which contains historical information without any pictures to give more background information to go along with the poem. The poem goes through King's life until his death, and focuses on the importance of dreams and working toward them while giving details as to how Martin Luther King worked toward his dream of racial equality and the advances he helped to bring about. The second part of Listen to My Dream goes into more detail than the poem on how this happened, in case there are questions that are brought up when the poem is being read.

All of the illustrations were drawn by Debi and Michael Pearl, with many of the illustrations helping to give further information on incidences that were mentioned briefly in the poem in order to flesh things out a bit.

The main point of Listen To My Dream is the fact that the important contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the civil rights movement need to be told to children and remembered by them.