Martin’s Big Words: Video/DVD

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. last week, I thought I’d revisit Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport. Scholastic released a video version of the book, which I think contains different aspects. Instead of adding new animation for the video, Scholastic decided to give movement to the pictures from the book. The video zooms and pans across a page to make it appear as if the pictures are actually moving. This gives more detail to the pictures. The video also uses a narrator (actor Michael Clarke Duncan) but occasionally includes text that moves quite a bit on the page. Some kids who are learning to read may find this distracting.

Overall, I think the video is a good adaptation of the book, and it’s nice that Scholastic released it as part of their video collection.  It includes a portion of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, in his own words. If you want to view, listen, or read the entire speech (which I highly recommend), go here.