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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Black Brilliance by Suzette McLean is a historical nonfiction quiz book built around one idea: Black history is part of world history, not a separate story beginning with enslavement. McLean starts in ancient Africa, where rulers such as Mansa Musa represent established centers of wealth and learning, then follows that line into later generations whose work changed the societies around them, including Joy Buolamwini, whose research exposed racial bias in facial recognition technology. Each question places a person or achievement within historical context, so readers can see how Black contribution continued across time, even when stories became less widely taught. The quiz format asks readers to think about what has been remembered and what has been left out, turning recall into a way of restoring missing context. McLean presents history as something passed forward through shared knowledge.
Suzette McLean’s Black Brilliance: The Global History Quiz Book benefits enormously from her years in education, which shows how comfortably she turns historical knowledge into shared learning. McLean has created a quiz book that feels especially valuable now, placing Black achievement within world history while making conversation part of the experience. Her writing is wonderfully accessible, educational, and genuinely interesting, with facts presented in a way that invites curiosity. I loved learning that Shirley Chisholm campaigned for the American presidency in 1972 under the slogan “Unbought and Unbossed.” McLean’s research is fantastic, especially in period details such as Mary Seacole establishing her British Hotel near the Crimean front and Thomas Sankara renaming Upper Volta as Burkina Faso in 1984. Most fascinating to me was the inclusion of Nelson Mandela’s prison number, 466/64, identifying him as the 466th prisoner admitted in 1964. This is a terrific choice for families, teachers, and school age readers, particularly as a shared quiz that can lead into conversation. Very highly recommended.
