A teacher helps her students protest U.S. segregation with sit-ins.
In the 1930s, young Clara Luper notices a “Whites Only” park in her Oklahoma town. Her father, who is crying, promises her that “someday will be real soon,” when segregation will no longer exclude black Americans. Rhuday-Perkovich commendably explains the concept of segregation for young readers, emphasizing that it is “separate and unequal” (printed in bold, like other key points). Grown and become a teacher, Clara stresses that “education meant participation.” Performing a play she wrote in New York City, Clara and her students experience integrated facilities and realize “in some places, someday was now.” Back in Oklahoma City, they decide to combat segregation using the four steps of nonviolence: “investigation, negotiation, education, and demonstration.” During sit-ins at a lunch counter, the young activists’ white friends and neighbors turn to enemies. Johnson uses facial expressions and stains on clothes to effectively convey stress and tension in a manner sensitive to readers unfamiliar with the violence of the civil rights movement. Johnson’s ability to depict great emotion through something as simple as a teardrop is laudable, as is the intentional portrayal of the spectrum of shades found among black people.
Not only does this book highlight an important civil rights activist, it can serve as an introduction to child activism as well as the movement itself. Valuable. (author’s notes, glossary) (Picture book/biography. 5-9)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63322-498-8
Page Count: 35
Publisher: Seagrass/Quarto
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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A remarkable tree stands where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once soared.
Through simple, tender text, readers learn the life-affirming story of a Callery pear tree that grew and today still flourishes “at the foot of the towers.” The author eloquently describes the pre-9/11 life of the “Survivor Tree” and its heartening, nearly decadelong journey to renewal following its recovery from the wreckage of the towers’ destruction. By tracking the tree’s journey through the natural cycle of seasonal changes and colors after it was found beneath “the blackened remains,” she tells how, after replanting and with loving care (at a nursery in the Bronx), the tree managed miraculously to flourish again. Retransplanted at the Sept. 11 memorial, it valiantly stands today, a symbol of new life and resilience. Hazy, delicate watercolor-and–colored pencil artwork powerfully traces the tree’s existence before and after the towers’ collapse; early pages include several snapshotlike insets capturing people enjoying the outdoors through the seasons. Scenes depicting the towers’ ruins are aptly somber yet hopeful, as they show the crushed tree still defiantly alive. The vivid changes that new seasons introduce are lovingly presented, reminding readers that life unceasingly renews itself. Many paintings are cast in a rosy glow, symbolizing that even the worst disasters can bring forth hope. People depicted are racially diverse. Backmatter material includes additional facts about the tree.
A lovely 20th-anniversary tribute to the towers and all who perished—and survived. (author's note, artist's note) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-48767-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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