DEAR READERS: With Christmas approaching, I have recently discovered an outstanding new reading resource for parents, grandparents, teachers and mentors who want to find books especially for young African American males. Beginning with books for very young children, it progresses to books for high school and adult readers -- and contains lively, informative descriptions of more than 100 outstanding works of literature by such authors as Langston Hughes, Walter Mosley, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass and James Baldwin.
Created by the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, "Spirited Minds: African American Books for Our Sons and Our Brothers" (W.W. Norton, N.Y. & London), sells for $11 in softcover.
Adults can create a lifelong love for reading in children by reading to them and with them -- and the most powerful way to teach is by engaging the imagination.