book cover

Dream to Change the World:The Story of John La Rose

by Ken Wilson-Max

Interest age: 5 to 8
Reading age: 5+

Published by George Padmore Institute, 2022

  • Diaries and journals
  • Historical
  • Non-fiction

About this book

This charming book for young readers tells the story of John La Rose, the pioneering black activist who set up Britain’s first black publisher and bookshop, New Beacon Books, and was also one of the founders of the George Padmore Institute.

The book is the story of John La Rose’s early life in Trinidad. He was a child that wanted to learn everything, go everywhere – and always asked loads of questions. He also loved to dance! Little John started to keep his dreams and ideas in notebooks, and it was these notebooks that have helped to form the story in this book...

Ken Wilson Max’s beautiful, captivating illustrations make this a lovely and inspiring book to read. It’s a beautiful book to make us think about how all great people start life as little children, and therefore that all little children can become great people, whatever their background. It’s a great introduction to a really interesting part of our history, which will hopefully lead to children asking more questions themselves.

About the author

Born in Zimbabwe, Ken Wilson-Max lives in London. He has written and illustrated over 50 books for children. He also illustrates things for grow-ups and businesses and publishes work from other creators through Alanna Max.

As a younger man, Ken made stories from what he saw in his travels. He was excited and so the work was exciting. As he became more experienced and familiar with his surroundings, he saw that everyone had a story to tell. He became determined to inspire others to tell theirs. He found this made his stories much better. It also allowed him to experiment and learn. Since 2014, he’s also been publishing the Chicken Newspaper for children all over the world.

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