Michael Jackson Book Club Review: “Humanitarian, the real Michael Jackson”

April 16, 2021

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Humanitarian, The Real Michael Jackson
Rating: 4.5/5

Humanitarian, The Real Michael Jackson by Paul Dwyer

The title Humanitarian is short, sweet and gets right to the point because it’s the core of who Michael Jackson really was. The cover is a nice picture of Michael with the background being of the magical place he called home, taken at night, and lit up beautifully. But for me, as majestic as Michael looks, as well as the picture of his home, it wouldn’t have been my first choice for the actual cover. The text inside the book is somewhat small which can make it hard to read but was necessary to make room for the pictures that also tell the story on their own.

One thing I have found that most Michael Jackson fans have in common, is that we all were fans of the magic of his music. But it wasn’t until we dug into the person, that we fell in love and realized that we weren’t just fans of his music but were intrigued by an extraordinary man that had to have been in flesh, a human, but in spirit something of a higher being. Even as a fan who already knows a lot of Michael’s humanitarian work, I learned so much more from reading this book. If you are not a fan and don’t know what Michael has accomplished around the world, this book will be all the education you need and could surprise a lot of people who may not see all the positive things about him that his fans already know.

Humanitarian contains countless stories, 154 pages of Michael’s work, and we still do not know all that he has done because as we learned on the very last page, much of Michael’s charity involvement was a private and unpublicized matter. The personal commentary stories stood out most to me because from them I learned he literally saved lives! And if one pays very close attention to the dates of Michael’s humanitarian acts, it’s astonishing as well as heartbreaking. When the world was turning their back on Michael, he was far from turning his back on the world. While the world was accusing this man of wounding its most precious treasures, Michael was putting his money where his mouth was and literally practicing what he preached, which was to heal the world. He set out to accomplish something and never lost sight of his real work, His godly work. Michael started with the little man in the mirror. He was just a little boy earning money from performing as a child to hand out sweets to local neighboring children in the early 1970s (p.6) and he is still changing lives for the better to this day, as declared by Michael in his will, to devote 20% of his future earnings to several undisclosed charities (p.138).

Michael Jackson was our Earth Angel, and this book is proof of that.

Thank you so much to Paul Dwyer for taking the time out of his life to put this treasure out into the world! It is a very special book for me not just because of its contents, but how I was given the opportunity to have this book in my possession, was pure Michael magic. Since the day I received this book at my doorstep, I have carried it around with me in my Michael bookbag. It’s a reminder of what one human being can accomplish in this world, so I have no excuse not to be a better me every single day!

I rate this book 4 ½ stars and that’s only because in my opinion there are so many other pictures that would’ve matched the title and grabbed lots of attention if on the cover. Other than that, it is perfect to me.

Danielle Thomas

Michael Jackson Book Club Member