I am Martin Luther King, Jr.

Brad Meltzer's picture-book biography puts young Martin Luther King Jr. in the narrator's seat, walking kids through his Georgia boyhood, the sting of segregation, and his rise as a leader of nonviolent resistance. Christopher Eliopoulos's cartoon illustrations keep the story lively without softening what segregation actually meant. The first-person voice is a smart choice — it makes King feel like someone a child could know rather than a monument on a pedestal. The trade-off is real brevity; King's deep theology and the harder chapters of his later activism don't fit here. Still, as an entry point for ages four through eight, this earns its place in classrooms and home libraries. Worth it.