This book is a biography of Paul Robeson. This book would be good for higher grade levels such as 5th grade and up. This book touches on mature topics such as war. This book can teach about war through real life stories. ( )

Paul Robeson was a remarkable man, born in 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey to a father who was an escaped slave and who later became a Presbyterian minister. At seventeen, Robeson was given a scholarship to Rutgers University (called Rutgers College at that time), where he received an unprecedented twelve major letters in sports in four years and was also his class valedictorian. After graduating he went on to Columbia University Law School, and, in the early 1920s, took a job with a New York law firm. No white secretary would assist a black man, however, so he turned to performing arts, a field in which blacks were more accepted.

He attained international fame as an actor and singer; he traveled the world performing benefits for causes of social justice (he spoke fifteen languages and performed in more than twenty-five). Unlike many other performers both before and after his time, he believed that the famous have a responsibility to speak out for justice and peace.

His European trips exposed him to the unusual experience of a black being treated like a man. He became politically outspoken, and his criticism of racism, combined with his intelligence and popularity, aroused the ire of the State Department. (Criticizing the hypocrisy of race relations in America was deemed aiding and abetting the Communist cause.) Eventually he had his passport revoked, and was hounded by J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI.

But before that happened, he petitioned the president of the United States of America for an anti-lynching law, promoted African self-rule, helped victims of the Spanish Civil War, fought for India's independence, and championed equality for all human beings.

But he was also someone’s grandpa.

In an Author’s Note at the end of this book, Susan Robeson, Paul's granddaughter, writes:

“Grandpa Stops a War tells the story of four powers that shaped my childhood as a Robeson: the power of music to move hearts and minds, the courage to act according to your beliefs, the artist as a citizen of the world, and the power of compassion.”

In this book, she relates one of her favorite family stories, about how her grandpa actually stopped the Spanish Civil War for a brief period. In 1938, he went to the front lines of the troops fighting against fascism to show support for them. He agreed to sing for the men, and asked them to turn the loudspeakers to face both sides of the battlefield. The author recounts:

“And then he sang . . . more beautifully and with more feeling than ever before. He sang for the children who were suffering. He sang for his father who had suffered until he escaped to freedom. He sang for all the people who had died in the war.”

In a stunning development, the battlefield grew silent, and no shots were fired. The only sound, she writes, “was just Grandpa Paul’s rumbling voice singing African American spirituals and songs of peace and love and freedom.”

She ends: “While Grandpa Paul sang there was peace.”

It’s just one of the great anecdotes one can find about Paul Robeson. My own favorite is this one:

He was visiting the USSR in 1948, which, unbeknownst to the world, was in the middle of carrying out Stalin's purges against Jews. Robeson kept inquiring about his Jewish friend, the Soviet Yiddish poet Itzik Feffer and wanted to see him. In actuality, Feffer had been arrested (and would be executed subsequent to Robeson's visit on "The Night of the Murdered Poets"). In an attempt to cover up what was going on, the authorities brought Feffer to see Robeson in his hotel room on Robeson's final night in Moscow. Feffer could not tell Robeson the truth in the room that he assumed to be bugged, but tried to communicate his fate through gestures. After their visit, Robeson proceeded with his concert. At the end, he asked for quiet, and announced he would sing one encore. He said the song was in honor of his friend Feffer, and then sang (with no preparation at all), the "Resistance Song" from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, first in Russian, then in Yiddish. Incredible story, incredible guy.

Illustrator Rod Brown has painted beautiful pictures for this book, but I don’t see a close resemblance to Paul Robeson. Nevertheless, his textured paintings are quite appealing.

Evaluation: When you’ve got a subject like Paul Robeson, it’s hard not to create a winning story. He was a true hero and an excellent role model, and this glimpse at his extraordinary talent and courage should inspire children to want to find out more. ( )