Happy Martin Luther King Day!

I hope that those of you who have the day off are having a great three-day weekend (and maybe getting caught up a bit on your reading). It's a good excuse to introduce a bit of history into your (or your kid's) reading and you don't have to spend a fortune to do so. Which means, you can probably skip The Murkin Conspiracy: An Investigation into the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ($85.56) and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Image of God ($42.76), unless you are a serious scholar. The books in this post are all under 4 dollars, with three of them aimed at young readers.

Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.? ($3.99), by Nancy Harrison and Bonnie Bader

Book Description
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was only 25 when he helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott and was soon organizing black people across the country in support of the right to vote, desegregation, and other basic civil rights. Maintaining nonviolent and peaceful tactics even when his life was threatened, King was also an advocate for the poor and spoke out against racial and economic injustice until his death—from an assassin’s bullet—in 1968. With clearly written text that explains this tumultuous time in history and 80 black-and-white illustrations, this Who Was…? celebrates the vision and the legacy of a remarkable man.

Meet Martin Luther King, Jr ($3.99), by James T. De Kay

Book Description
Illus. with black-and-white photos. This revised edition of the popular Random House Step Up(TM) Biography of the great civil-rights leader and advocate for peaceful resistance now includes new text and additional dynamic photos.

Martin Luther King, Jr ($1.99), by Ruchir Shah

Book Description
A historical graphic novel on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. The comic book gives the history of Martin Luther King, Jr. in pictures and narrations.

Voices of Radical Change: Greatest Speeches of Political and Social Transformation ($3.99), by Anne Brown

Book Description
Speeches of visionaries and great leaders who inspired change and influenced the course of history. Every speech marks a figure or moment in history that represents political or social transformation.

A thoughtful compilation of orations from revered figures with whom most readers are already familiar: Mother Theresa, Thomas Paine, Galileo, Bill Gates, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr., Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Chief Seattle, and Barack Obama, to name a few.