In this post, we feature author Uma Krishnaswami, whose award-winning titles include the novel Book Uncle and Me. You can hear her speak about her new informational book,Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World, and try her “invitation to imagine” activity. You’ll also find other resources to explore. Thanks for joining us, and let us know what you think in the comments below!
Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World
- Written by Uma Krishnaswami
- Published by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
- Release date: August 17, 2021
Mahatma Gandhi and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. both shook, and changed, the world, in their quest for peace among all people, but what threads connected these great activists together in their shared goal of social revolution? Born more than a half-century apart, with seemingly little in common except one shared wish, both would go on to be icons of peaceful resistance and human decency. Both preached love for all human beings, regardless of race or religion. Both believed that freedom and justice were won by not one, but many. Both met their ends in the most unpeaceful of ways—assassination. But what led them down the path of peace? How did their experiences paralle . . . and diverge? Threads of Peace keenly examines and celebrates these extraordinary activists’ lives, the threads that connect them, and the threads of peace they laid throughout the world, for us to pick up, and weave together.
From Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World, by Uma Krishnaswami.
Just as Gandhi lived and chafed under foreign rule in India, young Martin Luther King Jr. grew up enduring the everyday insults of racial discrimination in the United States.
Read a longer excerpt from Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World
Explore Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World
Listen to Uma Krishnaswami talking with TeachingBooks about creating Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World. You can click the player below or experience the recording on TeachingBooks, where you can read along as you listen, and also translate the text to another language.
- Listen to author Uma Krishnaswami talk about her name.
- Explore TeachingBooks’ collection of activities and resources for Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World.
Invitation to Imagine
TeachingBooks asks each author or illustrator on our Virtual Book Tour to share a writing prompt, a drawing exercise, or just an interesting question to spark curiosity and creativity. Enjoy the following activity contributed by Uma Krishnaswami.
Imagination Activity with Uma Krishnaswami
Here are a dozen words from Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World:
- silence
- strength
- freedom
- wounds
- discrimination
- law
- love
- conscience
- nonviolent
- courage
- overflowing
- heart
Write a passage or a poem using these words. Try to work in all of them. Use them in any order you like. When you’re done, read what you’ve written out loud. What is it about? Who is it speaking to? Give it a title.
Finish This Sentence . . . with Uma Krishnaswami
As part of our Virtual Book Tour, TeachingBooks asks authors and illustrators to complete short sentence prompts. Enjoy Uma Krishnaswami’s response.
“A surprising thing that helps me work is…”
A surprising thing that helps me work is knitting. I knit when I’m revising. I put my document up on my screen and knit while I scroll through it. That way, because my hands are busy, I won’t rush to make changes until I’ve had a chance to think them through.
“To young readers, I hope that my book may encourage you to think about…”
I hope that my book may encourage you to think about wrongs and injustices in your communities and neighborhoods, and how we can all work together towards peace and justice. You can’t yet vote, but you do have minds and voices. You can be part of shaping what Dr. King called the “Beloved Community.”
Thank you!
To wrap up this Virtual Book Tour, we thank Uma Krishnaswami for signing a book for all of us.
More Connections to Uma Krishnaswami and Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World
- Discover books like Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World on TeachingBooks.
- Simon & Schuster’s page about Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World, by Uma Krishnaswami.
- Buy Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World, by Uma Krishnaswami.
- Uma Krishnaswami on Instagram.
Explore all of the titles featured in the TeachingBooks Virtual Book Tour: one link with author interviews, lesson plans, activities, and more!
All text and images are courtesy of Uma Krishnaswami and Simon & Schuster, and may not be used without expressed written consent.
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