8 Books Published by Dodd, Mead and Company on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Presents individual stories of young Southeast Asian refugees and discusses some of their problems, hopes, and successes.

Children of the Maya is a somewhat misleading title for this book, since it covers the plight of Guatemalan refugees of Mayan descent, who escaped the death squads of the Guatemalan army. The hardships and horrors they endured are vividly recounted through first-person narratives. Their recollections are often gruesome: Luis Garcia tells of finding his father’s decapitated body in a ditch; Antonio Guerra remembers the sights and sounds of the army’s massacre of his neighbors and the burning of his village. Accompanying black-and-white photos illustrate the stark contrast between the primitive camps in Mexico where the refugees took temporary shelter and the modest but clean apartments of Indiantown, Fla., where they now live. The author also discusses the problems of adjusting to life in America and the lasting impressions of terror left on the children’s psyches. A preface gives a helpful overview of Mayan culture and history. These stories are important, and should acquaint children with the crisis facing the Guatemalan people, whose plight is underpublicized.

A biography of the black photographer who has received acclaim for his prints of Harlem.

Discusses the efforts of North American Indians to survive in and adjust to modern society while holding onto their ethnic heritage.

Discusses relations between the Northern Cheyenne Indians of Montana and the United States government, as well as the tribe’s recent fight to save its lands from strip-mining coal companies.

Alonzo S. (Jake) Gaither, former head football coach and athletic director of Florida A & M, was named to the Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1975, the first coach of a predominantly black college to be so honored (from the dust jacket flap).

17 Black artist that changed the course of art history.