Civil Rights Literature

Civil Rights Literature

Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the front lines of the civil rights movement
by Ann Bausum ; forewords by Freedom Riders Congressman John Lewis and Jim Zwerg
Author: Bausum, Ann
Offers the true account of two young men who took the risk to venture into the segregated South at the peak of the Civil Rights era to take part as Freedom Riders and fight for equality for all.

Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, c2006, 79 p.

ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0792241738
0792241746

King's courage
by Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon ; illustrated by David Wenzel
Author: Deutsch, Stacia
Mr. Caruthers' History Club once again travels back in time, but this time they have to babysit Jacob and Zack's brother, Gabe, while convincing Dr. Martin Luther King to lead the voting-rights march to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.

New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2006, 108 p.

Booklist Review:

Gr. 2-4. In the third entry in the Blast to the Past series, adventures in the mold of the Magic Treehouse and Time Warp Trio books, Abigail and her three pals receive another mission from their social-studies teacher. This time, their time machine lands them in Selma, Alabama, during the voters' rights marches of 1965, and the group must convince a disheartened Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to stay the course--while wrangling an accidentally transported toddler. The series' mysterious epidemic of discouragement among American historical figures doesn't bear much scrutiny, and in this particular scenario, it's a little jarring that none of the kids are African American. Still, children will respond to the portrayal of the lauded history maker as a fallible, approachable human being as well as to the urgent threat of nullified civil rights. Jaunty illustrations and a brisk, plot-driven pace are just right for newcomers to chapter books; perhaps with an eye to streamlining the text for its intended audience, the term blacks is used throughout rather than the multisyllabic African Americans.
-- Jennifer Mattson (Reviewed 02-01-2006) (Booklist, vol 102, number 11, p66)
Other Contributors:
Cohon, Rhody: joint author; Wenzel, David T.: illustrator
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
141691269X
0606350136 : DEMCO Turtleback - Juvenile
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• Added to NoveList: 20061120
• TID: 151457

And all our wounds forgiven
Author: Lester, Julius
The dead John Calvin Marshall, a Harvard-educated civil rights leader, shares his thoughts on his wife, his white mistress, and a friend in Mississippi.

Publishers Weekly Review: Veteran novelist Lester ( Do Lord Remember Me ) here takes on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in a story that resonates with anguish and authenticity. The author uses flashbacks and a range of voices to tell the tale of his King stand-in, John Calvin Marshall, and to comment on the current state of the civil rights movement. After an introductory monologue by Marshall, the narrative jumps to the present as Marshall's white mistress, Lisa Adams, speaks to the slain leader's widow, Andrea, who's lying comatose in a hospital bed. Lisa provides poignant memories of her long affair with Marshall, while Bobby Card, a militant Marshall colleague who was tortured by a white Southern sheriff in the '60s, vents his anger and his own racial chauvinism. The unconscious Andrea, meanwhile, offers in response an interior monologue on her fear of losing her husband and on the irony of knowing about his white lover. For all the power of the other voices, though, Marshall's is the most stirring of all, musing on the forces of history, the strengths and weaknesses of those closest to him and his chilling conversations with LBJ, Malcolm X, the Kennedys and other political luminaries of the time. Lester's emotionally wrenching novel brings the civil rights movement full circle, and few readers will finish the book without a new perspective on the racial divisiveness that plagues America today. (June)

Library Journal Review: Novels like this, which depict the life of a prominent politician or activist, probably make public figures shudder. The fictionalized version of their lives often becomes more real than history. In this novel, Lester thinly disguises Martin Luther King Jr. as Cal, a famous slain civil rights leader. From the grave, Cal shares his thoughts, as do his wife, Andrea; his mistress, Elizabeth, who is a blue-eyed blond from a privileged white family; and Card, a veteran of civil rights work in Mississippi. The novel teeters back and forth, from the present at Andrea's deathbed to the tempestuous 1960s, examining the personal, political, and social impact of the past on the present and future. Lester captures well the essence of a leader struggling with immense responsibility and his own human nature. An award-winning children's author, Lester has also written nonfiction, including Falling Pieces of the Broken Sky (LJ 10/1/90). Recommended for most collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/94.]-Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia

Kirkus Reviews /* Starred Review */ Lester (The Last Tales of Uncle Remus, 1994, etc.) offers a potentially controversial and intimate account of the life and death of a black civil rights leader as told 25 years later by the leader himself and the people who loved him. John Calvin Marshall -- a fictional Martin Luther King Jr. -- speculates about the movement he led and its unintended consequences. Were the costs too high? As John grapples with this question, three casualties of the movement assess its cost to their own lives in an effort to free themselves from John's burdensome legacy: Andrea, the wife who resented his work during his lifetime and became a national symbol of it as his widow; Lisa Adams, John's white personal secretary and lover who lost everything when he died and she was thrust from the movement; and Bobby Card, the black organizer who sacrificed his youth and sanity for love of John. The three of them are reunited as Andrea lies dying of a stroke in a hospital in Nashville. Lisa leaves her mountain in Vermont to sit with the comatose Andrea and ask for forgiveness and perhaps for permission to move on. Amazingly, Andrea is able to give her both and, at the same time, free herself. In her turn, Lisa helps Bobby forgive himself for not hating whites enough, a terrible weakness in his mind. Lisa and Bobby leave each other with real hope for the future. The future of the movement is more doubtful, however, just as its past is ambiguous. The answer to John's original question is never stated explicitly, but perhaps hope can be found in the Andrea-Lisa-Bobby microcosm. Ultimately, however, Lester leaves John Calvin Marshall's question unanswered because it is unanswerable. A forceful and startling look into the minds and hearts of those involved in the civil rights movement, this novel raises compelling questions about the successes and failures of that movement.
(Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 1994)
Features about this author or title:

1. Author Biographies for Young Adults - Julius Lester
Author Web Sites:

1. About Julius Lester : Features biographical information and reviews of selected titles.
Other titles associated with this book:
All our wounds forgiven
Our wounds forgiven
All wounds forgiven
And our wounds forgiven
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
1559702583
0156003309 : Paperback - Print on Demand
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults, published by Oryx Press
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 004439

Children Bob Moses led, The
Author: Heath, William, 1942-
Tom Morton joins the Civil Rights Movement and travels to Mississippi during Freedom Summer in 1964 to help disenfranchised African Americans.

Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1995, 317 p.

Publishers Weekly Review: A violent, volatile period in American history-the fight for civil rights in Mississippi in the early 1960s-is brought to some life in this straightforward novel that weaves a wealth of facts with rather less rich fiction. Heath (The Walking Man) alternates first-person perspectives of his two main characters: Tom Morton, a naive white volunteer for the Mississippi Summer Project, organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, (SNCC) whose purpose is to help blacks register to vote; and the real-life Bob Moses, the seasoned black activist who holds SNCC together. For the most part, the plot describes or parallels actual events. Youthful activism begins to wane as the "Freedom Summer" progresses and the students learn that bullying sheriffs and gun-toting bigots are not the only obstacles to change in the American South. Facing more difficult challenges of institutionalized racism and power struggles within their own movement, the volunteers begin to question their own motives, and their relationships grow increasingly intense as personal agendas become furiously entangled with political ones. Tom's honest, often wry perspective reveals his fears and his determination, and his romantic involvement with one of his students-a black teenaged girl-raises ethical questions that continue to resonate. More problematic is Moses' first-person voice, which offers little of his inner world. The result is that his portions of the narrative often take on a textbook quality. But the large cast of characters gives voice to the complexity of the era's issues, and Heath's clear chronicle of this poignant moment in our nation's recent past is often compelling. (Oct.)

Library Journal Review: In this historical novel, Tom Morton, an idealistic white college student, enthusiastically joins the Civil Rights movement. Under the direction of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Tom travels to Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964. There he helps disenfranchised black citizens register to vote amid hostility and violence from local racists. In alternating chapters, Tom and his hero, real-life Mississippi Summer Project leader Bob Moses, detail the drama, danger, and exhilaration of the times from their respective viewpoints as movement volunteer and spellbinding leader. Together their narratives create an overview of a crucial period in U.S. history. Though sometimes marred by cliches and seemingly interchangeable supporting characters, the book maintains an impressive level of historical accuracy. Heath (The Walking Man, Icarus Bks., 1994) shares some of his decade of research in a useful bibliography. Buy where subject coverage is comprehensive.-Starr E. Smith, Marymount Univ., Arlington, Va.

Kirkus Reviews In a hazy mixture of fact and fiction, the Freedom Summer Project of 1964 comes alive in the contrasting narratives of civil rights leader Bob Moses and fictional volunteer Tom Morton. The unfathomable oppression of rural Mississippi during its black voter registration drives is depicted with faultless clarity, the result of Heath's ten years of research, though at times the story is so fact-laden that it seems more like a penetrating historical text than a work of fiction. The novel begins with the voice of Tom Morton, a white, midwestern college student whose motivations, earnest though naive, reflect those of a whole generation of students swept up by the idealism of Camelot. Tom describes his experiences in the rural town he was assigned to--doing tasks that range from persuading an already tyrannized people to risk their lives by registering to vote, to depicting the beatings he witnessed and of which he was also a victim. The summer begins with promise, but the dangers and obstacles of the situation quickly become clear: The bodies of three missing CORE workers are found, harassment becomes life-threatening, and sexual and racial tensions begin to splinter the group's unity. Tom's chapters alternate with the steady narrative of Bob Moses, a New York teacher who went south to battle a virtual police state. With him, we follow the progression of the early civil rights movement--from the nonviolent teachings of Dr. King to the increasingly separatist doctrine that spread as real political changes slowed. The writing here has a journalistic feel to it, the characters presented like anonymous witnesses. Still, despite a sometimes wooden and clumsy style, first-novelist Heath presents an illuminating portrait of the time, fascinating for the smaller events he uncovers, chronicling the bravery of those who didn't capture the national spotlight. An absorbing look at one of America's darkest and most courageous moments.
(Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 1995)
Other titles associated with this book:
Bob Moses led the children
Children led by Bob Moses
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
1571310088
1571310126 : Paperback
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults, published by Oryx Press
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 033267

Just like Martin
Author: Davis, Ossie, 1917-
Following the deaths of two classmates in a bomb explosion at his Alabama church, fourteen-year-old Stone organizes a children's march for civil rights in the autumn of 1963.

Booklist Review: Books for Youth, Older Readers: Gr. 5-8. Davis sets his docunovel about the civil rights movement in the crucial time of the march on Washington and the assassination of the president, when children died in the bombing of a church and their classmates studied nonviolence and overcame police dogs and clubs. The story is told in the voice of 13-year-old Isaac Stone, dutiful son, straight-A student in his Alabama school, and junior assistant pastor of Holy Oak Baptist. He struggles to keep his personal vow of nonviolence and dreams of becoming a preacher "just like Martin." Though several minor characters are vividly drawn, Isaac is more role model than person. Some of the dialogue is stiff, and there are loose ends in the story, especially in Isaac's relationship with his troubled Korean veteran father, who nurses a pistol, refuses to espouse nonviolence, and then suddenly does. This story doesn't have the lyrical power of Moore's Freedom Songs in showing what it was like to be young at that time. What is riveting here is the sense of history being made--of struggle and commitment in one community. Readers will go from this book to the great documentaries in book and video and to the stirring essays and speeches of the time. ((Reviewed Sept. 1, 1992)) -- Hazel Rochman

School Library Journal Review: Gr 7-9-- The year is 1963, and 14-year-old Isaac "Stone" Stone's father, Ike, won't let him travel with the rest of his church youth group from Alabama to the civil rights march in Washington. His mother has just died, and his father worries that something will happen to the boy. Besides, ever since Ike came back from the Korean War filled with bitterness, he has kept a gun in the garage. He opposes his son's devotion to nonviolence and belittles his admiration of Martin Luther King. When the church youth meeting room is bombed, killing two friends and maiming a third, Stone organizes a children's march. Ultimately, these efforts and the assassination of President Kennedy force Ike to confront his feelings and support his son. Both Stone and Ike are well-drawn characters, and their relationship is developed convincingly. Stone's devotion to his cause will inspire readers from all backgrounds. Davis realistically portrays the boy's struggle to apply King's values in his personal life, and the ending is hopeful but not happy. Unfortunately, inconsistencies in language and dialogue interrupt the flow of the story, as do the characters' tendencies to make speeches. Historical information is not always integrated smoothly. This is a moving story, but one that does not quite come together as a novel. --Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Siena College Library, Loudonville, NY

Publishers Weekly Review: Fourteen-year-old Ike Stone and his pals are thrilled to be part of the Civil Rights movement sweeping the deep South in the 1960s, but the depth of racial hatred is brought painfully home when two of their friends are killed in a bombing. The peaceful demonstration that the boy and his friends mount in response to this senseless violence forms the climax of this stirring novel. Equally moving is the subplot dealing with how Ike and his troubled father take halting steps towards making peace with each other. Noted theater figure Davis has loaded enough action and emotional energy for two novels into his tale. Even though his characterizations (particularly of the adults) sometimes blur, the book's drive and vision more than compensate. A passionate first novel. Ages 10-14. (Oct.)

Kirkus Reviews In his first novel, the actor and playwright plunges readers into the headiest days of the Civil Rights movement. Isaac, almost 14, is dismayed when him protective father refuses to let him join the great March on Washington; later, after the Young People's Bible Class at his church is bombed, he helps organize a children's march and sees his father beaten by police when the march is broken up. Davis shows how a local church could expand its role as community center to play a part in inspiring and guiding a national movement, inviting readers to consider the conflict between Isaac, who has embraced Martin Luther King's philosophy of nonviolence, and his father, who carries a pistol and promises to give as he receives. Despite witnessing racial violence and experiencing steady harassment from his peers, Isaac's convictions endure. He gets to meet his hero, Dr. King; in the end, his father, after Kennedy's assassination and some soul-searching, has a change of heart. Dramatic and simply told, with a cast of strong personalities.
(Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 1992)
Features about this author or title:

1. Author Biographies for Young Adults - Ossie Davis
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0140370951 : Paperback - Juvenile
0671732021 : Hardcover - Juvenile
0786826320 : Paperback - Juvenile
0785756590 : Glued Binding
0606077561 : DEMCO Turtleback - Juvenile
0844668974 : Hardcover - Juvenile
0786808128 : Hardcover - Juvenile
0780750446 : Glued Binding
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 077876

Freedom songs
Author: Moore, Yvette
In the sixties, when Sheryl's Uncle Pete joins the Freedom riders down South, she organizes a gospel concert in Brooklyn to help him.

School Library Journal Review: Gr 7-12-- This historical novel that opens on Good Friday morning in 1963 is the story of the impact of the beginnings of the civil rights movement on a Brooklyn teenager with family roots in the South. When Sheryl and her family head to North Carolina for Easter weekend, readers are plunged headlong into country living with outhouses and scary dogs at the neighbors' as well as a foot-washing church service, country picnics, and over and over the force of the Jim Crow laws that both infuriate and humiliate Sheryl. The topic of the freedom riders is introduced as young Uncle Pete is dedicated to the movement, and the whole family reacts. On Sheryl's return to her segregated northern community, she shares with her friends her concern and desire to support the movement with a fundraiser. Much of the story centers on how the kids struggle to achieve their goal and how that struggle changes them. The narrative resonates with the details and emotions of the times. The fear and anguish of the relatives and observers of those in the front lines are balanced by the lighthearted gossip and trivial pursuits of teenagers far from the reality. The book is uneven, however, and the narrator's voice is often not that of a 14-year-old. Moore includes far too many characters, and there is other evidence that this is a first novel and that the author's pacing and plot are not yet up to her vivid language and convincing ability to take readers to a crucial time in our history. --Carol A. Edwards, Buckham Memorial Library, Faribault, MN

Publishers Weekly Review: Readers interested in the civil rights movement will be touched and enlightened by this first novel about a black Northerner's growing awareness of the problems of segregation in the South. During the spring of 1968, Sheryl Williams, 14, confronts harsh realities while visiting relatives in North Carolina. After witnessing--and then experiencing--acts of prejudice, she understands why Uncle Pete and some neighbors have joined the freedom riders, a group of protesters practicing methods taught by Martin Luther King. Once home in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sheryl decides to collect money for the group by holding a benefit concert with her friends, but before she can carry out her plans, Uncle Pete is killed by a bomb. Working harder than ever, the grief-stricken girl and her schoolmates raise more than $5000 and continue their campaign by making the concert an annual event. In the tradition of Mildred Taylor, Moore presents an authentic, disturbing slice of black American history as she traces an impressionable heroine's changing perceptions. Although the story is set nearly 30 years ago, its themes regarding injustice, oppression and nonviolent forms of resistance remain relevant today. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)

Kirkus Reviews A Brooklyn teen-ager becomes a Civil Rights activist after witnessing the savage effects of racism. Easter, 1963: at a family gathering in the rural South, 19-year-old Uncle Pete announces, to the consternation of all, that he's going to be a Freedom Rider. Sheryl Williams, down with her parents for the holiday, has little ambition beyond being a "fly girl," but her consciousness is raised after being driven away from a "whites only" water fountain and watching whites being served first. On a later trip, she sees family members turned away when they try to register to vote and participates in a lunch-counter sit-in. Then Uncle Pete's Freedom School is bombed and he dies of injuries. Back in New York, Sheryl organizes a successful benefit concert for the Freedom Riders but realizes that her commitment to the movement is just beginning. Moore subtly and effectively describes the changing mixture of fear and resolution with which Sheryl faces white hostility, as well as the firm church and family relationships that are her foundation. She also presents the methods and nonviolent philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement as clearly as the abuses it aimed to correct. An uncompromising first novel that's easily strong enough to carry its educational load.
(Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 1991)
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0140360174 : Paperback - Juvenile
0606016937 : DEMCO Turtleback - Juvenile
0833592874 : Glued Binding
0531058123 : Hardcover - Juvenile
0531084124 : Reinforced binding - Juvenile
0780714016 : Glued Binding
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 079676

Dream of freedom, A: the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1968
Diane McWhorter ; foreword by Fred Shuttlesworth
Author: McWhorter, Diane
Explores the sacrifices and triumphs of African Americans in their pursuit of social and political equality, and examines the often violent resistance they met from white Americans.

New York: Scholastic Nonfiction, c2004, 160 p.

Kirkus Reviews /* Starred Review */ This clear-eyed account of the civil-rights movement's most vicious years should be required reading for anyone who thinks that it all began and ended with Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. Using her own privileged Birmingham childhood as a springboard, Pulitzer-winner McWhorter sketches in the realities of post-Reconstruction racism in North and South alike, along with the conflicting responses to it embodied by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Then she chronicles horrors and heroism from the violent reactions to Brown v. Board of Education to the chaotic close of the "Poor People's Campaign." But along with detailing the proud accomplishments of the movement's iconic figures, she also points up King's messiah complex and Jesse Jackson's early reputation as an opportunist. She profiles lesser known activists and looks behind the movement's seeming solidarity to its internal dissensions and politics. Illustrated with many of the era's most telling news photos, and enhanced by follow-ups, side portraits, and a manageable, multimedia resource list, this passionate study will take readers a long way toward understanding the enduring, personal meaning that the struggle for racial equality has for everyone. (Nonfiction. 10-15)
(Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2004)

Other Contributors:
Shuttlesworth, Fred L., 1922-: author of foreword
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0439576784
Credits:

• Baker & Taylor
• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20050120
• TID: 130895

Freedom on the menu: the Greensboro sit-ins
by Carole Boston Weatherford ; paintings by Jerome Lagarrigue
Author: Weatherford, Carole Boston, 1956-
The 1960 civil rights sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, are seen through the eyes of a young Southern black girl.

New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, c2005, 1 v. (unpaged)

Booklist Review: Gr. 1-3. Set in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960, this picture book tells a story of desegregation from the viewpoint of one little girl. Growing up in the South, Connie understands that there are places where she and other African Americans can and cannot eat, drink, swim, and use the bathroom. But after Dr. King visits the local college chapel to preach and her older siblings become active in the NAACP, she also knows that her people are working for change. When her brother’s friends sit down at a dime-store lunch counter that refuses them service, their act of peaceful protest starts a wave of similar demonstrations that brings better times to their community and throughout the South. An author’s note gives background information about the events in Greensboro that year. Simple and straightforward, the first-person narrative relates events within the context of one close-knit family. Though rather dark, the well-composed, painterly illustrations show up well from a distance. A handsome book for classroom reading, even for middle-grade students.
-- Carolyn Phelan (BookList, 02-01-2005, p980)

School Library Journal Review: K-Gr 4Connie likes to shop downtown with her mother. When they feel tired and hot, they stop in at Woolworth's for a cool drink, but stand as they sip their sodas since African Americans aren't allowed to sit at the lunch counter. Weatherford tells the story from the girl's point of view and clearly captures a child's perspective. Connie wants to sit down and have a banana split, but she can't, and she grumbles that, "All over town, signs told Mama and me where we could and couldn't go." When her father says that Dr. King is coming to town, she asks, "Who's sick?" She watches as her brother and sister join the NAACP and participate in the Greensboro, NC, lunch counter sit-ins. Eventually, Connie and her siblings get to sit down at the counter and have that banana split. Lagarrigue's impressionistic paintings convey a sense of history as they depict the pervasive signs of a Jim Crow society. An author's note about the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins concludes the book, pointing out the role young African Americans played in the struggle for civil rights. This book will pair well with Angela Johnson's A Sweet Smell of Roses (S & S, 2005).Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH --Mary N. Oluonye (Reviewed April 1, 2005) (School Library Journal, vol 51, issue 4, p115)

Publishers Weekly Review: Weatherford (Remember the Bridge) offers a fresh and affecting interpretation of a pivotal event in the civil rights movement. In 1960, four young black men sat down at a segregated Greensboro, N.C., Woolworth lunch counter and asked to be served, sparking a seven-month long protest in that city and inspiring sit-ins throughout the South. As a prelude, narrator Connie explains that she and her mother would often stop for a snack at the five-and-dime store, standing up as they sipped their sodas "because we weren't allowed to sit at the lunch counter." To bring the event home, Weatherford casts friends of Connie's older brother as the famous Greensboro Four, and later Connie's brother and sister also get involved in the protest. The author uses the wise voices of the girl's parents to address age-appropriate questions (e.g., when Connie says she would be too hungry to wait for hours at the lunch counter, as those four did, her father gently explains, "They didn't really want food.... They wanted to be allowed to get it, same as if they were white. To be treated fairly"). Lagarrigue's (My Man Blue) impressionistic paintings in what appear to be layers of oil paints, capture the story's considerable emotion: the protestors' determination, their opposers' disdain, and Connie's concern and ultimate joy as she, in the finale, digs into a banana split at the Woolworth lunch counter. Together, author and artist translate a complex issue into terms youngest readers can understand, in a resonant meshing of fact and fiction. Ages 5-up. (Jan.) --Staff (Reviewed January 3, 2005) (Publishers Weekly, vol 252, issue 1, p55)

Kirkus Reviews An ordinary African-American girl witnesses extraordinary events in this first-person account of the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960. Eight-year-old Connie lives in a segregated world where she can't use the same public drinking fountains, bathrooms, movie theatres, swimming pools, and lunch counters as whites. Then one day everything changes. Four African-American college boys stage a sit-in at the local Woolworth's lunch counter and Connie anxiously watches history unfold as her own brother and sister join the picketing and sit-ins and protest spreads throughout the South. A long six months later, Connie samples the sweet taste of freedom when she is served a banana split at the same lunch counter. Lagarrigue's somber, somewhat impressionistic paintings capture the dignity and gravity of the times. This quietly moving story pays tribute to the peaceful protesters who did indeed "overcome." (author's note) (Picture book. 5+)
(Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2004)
Other related features:

1. Teaching with Fiction - 'It's Not Fair!' Picture Books About Equality, Justice and Fairness

2. Teaching with Fiction - Vivid Verbs: Picture Books to Teach 'Show, Not Tell' Writing Style
Other Contributors:
Lagarrigue, Jerome: illustrator
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0803728603
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20050520
• TID: 133969

This is the dream
by Diane Z. Shore & Jessica Alexander ; illustrated by James Ransome
Author: Shore, Diane ZuHone
Text and illustrations commemorate the American experience of African Americans before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement.

New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, c2006, 40 p.

Publishers Weekly Review: Ransome (Satchel Paige) creates a striking juxtaposition of closely focused paintings and collage borders incorporating powerful historical photographs. These images will make a strong impression on readers of this expository chronicle of events preceding, during and following the civil rights movement, as Ransome's artwork makes large ideas comprehensible through visual details. The singsong rhythm and "House-that-Jack-Built" meter creates a chilling contrast to what's going on between the lines: "These are the buses???a dime buys a ride,/ but the people are sorted by color inside." Ransome shows the demarcation of the bus's white and black sections, and in a border across the top creates a collage of stirring portraits. Text and artwork similarly depict segrgated lunch counters, libraries and schools. One of the most powerful spreads portrays three black children stepping into a newly integrated school ("These are the students who step through the doors/ where people of color have not walked before"), Confederate flags flying, while a photocollage on the top edge shows the fractured images of angry white bystanders, effectively emulating a mob mentality. Concluding spreads demonstrate the contrast today, with images of a multiracial array of people waiting to use the same drinking fountain and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in one voice at school. This will provide a solid springboard for adult-child discussions, especially since younger readers might need help deciphering some of the poetic narrative's references. All ages. (Jan.) --Staff (Reviewed November 21, 2005) (Publishers Weekly, vol 252, issue 46, p46)

Kirkus Reviews A soaring tribute to the accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement in earnest, if sometimes clumsy, verse and mixed-media collage. After opening with a catalog of segregation, from water fountains and busses to schools and libraries, the writers point to the courageous souls who marched across those lines?"These are the passengers, on weary feet / walking until they can choose their own seat"?then close with visions of today's fountains, tables, busses and classrooms open to all. Ransome illustrates these visions, before and after, with painted figures (some recognizable, others generic) against tumultuous backgrounds and borders that incorporate clipped period photos; he then closes with an array of patriotic symbols. Despite a simplistic implication?countered only by a closing note in smaller type that younger readers may very well skip?that the movement's work is done, even children unfamiliar with the struggle's origins and landmark events will come away with profound appreciation for its nonviolent methods, and for its dream of "freedom and justice for all." (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)
(Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2005)
Other Contributors:
Alexander, Jessica: joint author; Ransome, James: ill
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
006055519X
0060555203
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20060720
• TID: 145602

I've seen the promised land: the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
by Walter Dean Myers ; illustrated by Leonard Jenkins
Author: Myers, Walter Dean, 1937-
Pictures and easy-to-read text introduce the life of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, c2004, 40 p.

irkus Reviews Following up their portrait of Malcolm X (2000), Myers briefly traces Dr. King's career, and Jenkins adds kaleidoscopic collages that both depict major incidents and figures of the Civil Rights movement, and capture the time's turmoil. Dr. King certainly doesn't lack for biographers, but Myers is unusually even-handed, highlighting King's nonviolent philosophy while viewing the Movement's angrier, more violent outbursts with a certain degree of—not sympathy, exactly, but understanding. Though Jenkins's images are sometimes over the top, as when he outfits the four children killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing with angel wings, and Myers frequently slips paraphrased lines from Dr. King's speeches into his narrative—"He said that he had been to the mountaintop and seen the promised land. He knew he might not reach that land . . . "—the balance of fact and feeling makes this a strong follow-up to Doreen Rappaport's Martin's Big Words (2002). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)
(Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2003)
Features about this author or title:

1. Annotated Book List - A Place Within Myself: Walter Dean Myers and the Fiction of Harlem Youth
Author Web Sites:

1. About Walter Dean Myers : Features author-supplied biographical information and an interview.
Other Contributors:
Jenkins, Leonard: ill
Other titles associated with this book:
I have seen the promised land
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0060277033
0060277041
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Baker & Taylor
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20061120
• TID: 152980

ive smooth stones: a novel
Author: Fairbairn, Ann
From his birth in the Depression to his interracial marriage to Sara and particpation as a civil rights leader, David Champlin demonstrates courage and integrity, and he sacrifices everything in his devotion to larger causes at the cost of his own happiness.

Kirkus Reviews Even while at a loss for words (Miss Fairbairn is not--her novel runs to more than 900 pages) to evaluate this as anything more than a popular novel, it is intended to synthesize the Negro experience in terms and through people which will involve the reader. As people, the characters are unrememberable; as writing, it is unremarkable; but it is at all times a readable book which traces the semantic worlds of difference and discrimination from "nigra" to "white man's nigger" to the point where the Negro can be an individual without a tag. David Champlin is the hero to whom the Biblical title allusion refers: his grandfather, L'il Joe, first seen cleaning out a lavatory in New Orleans during the depression, is determined that there "ain't no black skin gonna hold" his boy back, and with the help of a Danish intellectual, David goes on to get his education--at a small college in the midwest, then Harvard Law. At the first he meets a good many of the people whose lives will be contiguous with his throughout the book: Sara, a white girl, who falls in love with him; Hunter Travis, a light-skinned Negro whose father is a prominent statesman; Suds Sutherland, son of a Boston doctor; etc. Here at college, there is an attempt to Jim Crow him out via a homosexual slur. And by the time he is graduated, there is the recognition of his unchangeable love for Sara even though he feels "it is not enough." Travelin'--travelin'--from Boston to England (Oxford) to Paris (Sara and her art) to plans to accept a diplomatic post in South Africa, the novel and David return to the South after the death (David insists murder) of L'il Joe. This takes him right into the middle of Civil Rights action. After he is badly injured, he finally marries Sara; but with his return to the violence in the South, he is killed....Five Smooth Stones will be presented with tremendous publisher expectations and it has the Literary Guild endorsement. Even if the timing is a little off, it might do both good and well. The comparison to make is Exodus in that it dramatizes and empathizes the experience of a minority in a way which will reach the majority. Not the enlightened, the horizontal common denominator, which will not cavil with its utter predictability.
(Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 1966)
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0899668054 : Hardcover
0517506874 : Hardcover
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults, published by Oryx Press
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 026642

Now is your time!: The African-American struggle for freedom
Author: Myers, Walter Dean, 1937-
A history of the African-American struggle for freedom and equality, beginning with the capture of Africans in 1619, continuing through the American Revolution, the Civil War, and into the Sixties. Includes material on Abd al-Rahmen Ibrahima, James Forten, George Latimer, Dred Scott, John Brown, Ida B. Wells, Meta Vaux Warrick, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.

Kirkus Reviews /* Starred Review */ What happens when a gifted novelist (Scorpions, 1988, Newbery Honor) chooses to write the story of his people? In this case, the result is engrossing history with a strong unifying theme, the narrative enriched with accounts of outstanding lives. With well-chosen specifics and lucid generalizations, Myers recounts the history of African-Americans, skillfully providing a context for longer treatment of events with far-reaching significance (e.g., the involvement of black soldiers in the Civil War or landmark cases like Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education). Most compelling are the interwoven stories of representative African-Americans, bringing the history vividly to life: Ibrahima, unconquerable African prince; James Forten, entrepreneur; George Latimer, a fugitive who won his freedom but ended his life "a deeply troubled man"; Ida B. Wells, journalist; Meta Vaux Warrick, sculptor; and many more. The complex emotions generated by the more recent Civil Rights movement make it difficult to summarize, but even here Myers's entire presentation is dignified, well balanced, and without rancor, reflecting--like many of the lives he depicts--the movement's generous spirit. Speaking as an African-American, Myers concludes with an eloquent homily recalling the noble qualities of the people he has described and reminding readers that we should "be no less than we can be" and that "before you can go forward, you must know where you have been." For Americans of any color, he makes a notably persuasive case for doing both. Bibliography; b&w photos and index not seen.
(Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 1991)
Features about this author or title:

1. Annotated Book List - A Place Within Myself: Walter Dean Myers and the Fiction of Harlem Youth
Other related features:

1. Awards (Best Fiction) - Children's -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> Coretta Scott King Award -> Authors category

2. Awards (Best Fiction) - Young Adult -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> Coretta Scott King Award -> Authors category
Author Web Sites:

1. About Walter Dean Myers : Features author-supplied biographical information and an interview.
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 095993

Sweet smell of roses, A
Author: Johnson, Angela, 1961-
Minnie and her sister hear about a freedom march and leave their home to go to their city's downtown area where they listen to Dr. Martin Luther King and join the march, all the while smelling roses.

Other Contributors: Velasquez, Eric: illustrator
New York: Simon & Schuster books for Young Readers, 2005, 32 p.

ooklist Review: K-Gr. 2. History and politics get personal for young readers in this dramatic, large-size picture book about an African American child and her younger sister who steal out of the house to join the Civil Rights marchers and listen to Dr. King speak. The child’s clear, first-person narrative draws on the language of the struggle (“we look farther down the road”), and Velasquez’ realistic charcoal pictures, in black and white with an occasional touch of red, evoke the news footage of the time. The protestors confront the glowering police, and there are children among the racists who yell, “You are not right. Equality can’t be yours.” But this book is not only about segregation; it’s also about the crowds of people “walking our way toward freedom,” the thrilling portrait of Dr. King, and the two brave kids who cross the line.
-- Hazel Rochman (BookList, 02-01-2005, p978)

School Library Journal Review: K-Gr 3???This quiet, gentle story pays tribute to the many unnamed children who participated in the African-American struggle for civil rights. It opens: "After a night of soft rain there is a sweet smell of roses as my sister, Minnie, and I slip past Mama's door and out of the house down Charlotte Street." They head toward the curb market where folks, mostly adults, are gathering to listen to and march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Large, powerful charcoal images dominate the pages with particular attention paid to facial expressions. The artist shows the strength and resolve of the marchers in the face of "people who scream, shout, and say, 'You are not right. Equality can't be yours.'" Once the speeches are over, the sisters race home and are met at the door by their worried mother, "And as we tell her about the march, the curtains flow apart, and there is a sweet smell of roses all through our house." The only color that appears in this book is the deep red of the ribbon around the neck of Minnie's teddy bear, the U.S. flag, and the roses. Without going into much detail, this book nonetheless drives home the fact that children were involved in the movement and makes the experience more real for those just learning about this chapter of American history.???Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH --Mary N. Oluony (Reviewed March 1, 2005) (School Library Journal, vol 51, issue 3, p174)

Publishers Weekly Review: According to an author's note, Johnson's (When I Am Old with You) story pays tribute to the children who played a role in the civil rights movement, the "brave boys and girls who???like their adult counterparts???could not resist the scent of freedom carried aloft by the winds of change." Velasquez (The Sound That Jazz Makes) notes that his art pays homage to Harvey Dinnerstein and Burt Silverman, whose artwork "help[ed] spread the news of an oppressed community's fight for justice and equality." Together, text and art evoke the gumption of two spirited sisters who sneak out of their home one day to participate in a march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "After a night of soft rain/ there is a sweet smell of roses/ as my sister, Minnie, and I slip/ past Mama's door and out of the house/ down Charlotte Street," opens the spare, poetic narrative. The smell of roses surfaces repeatedly???as the group marches past hecklers, as Dr. King addresses the marchers, and as the girls return home to their worried mother, at which point the scent emanates from blooms in a window box of their house. Some readers may wonder what prompted the sisters to surreptitiously join the march, but most will appreciate experiencing the event from a child's eye-view. Velasquez's understated, realistic charcoal illustrations make effective use of color, seen only in the red stripes of the American flag, the red ribbon around a teddy bear's neck and the red roses in the window. Ages 5-8. (Jan.) --Staff (Reviewed January 3, 2005) (Publishers Weekly, vol 252, issue 1, p55)

Kirkus Reviews Two children take part in a freedom march in the days of the civil-rights struggle in the south. Martin Luther King Jr. is there, inspiring them with his words and actions. But the marchers are mostly ordinary citizens, old and young, "walking our way to freedom." Johnson carefully chooses simple, descriptive words and phrases that reach all the senses. The children listen to King's words, feel the bright sunlight, and smell the flowers along the road, as more and more people join the march, singing and clapping. They pass the haters, screaming at them from the side of the road. At day's end they return home, having played a small role in history. Velasquez's illustrations are marvelous, perfectly complementing the text and giving the words an extra punch and impact. He draws them entirely in charcoal with just a touch of red to draw the eye to the teddy bear's ribbon, the American flag, and the roses whose sweet smell accompanies the girls throughout the day. Powerful and moving. (Picture book. 6-10)
(Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2005)
Author Web Sites:

1. About Angela Johnson : A short biography of the author and description of her books.
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0689832524
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20050320
• TID: 132564

Walk through fire, A: a novel
Author: Cobb, William, 1937-
In 1961, the Civil Rights movement comes to the black community of Hammond, Alabama, and both blacks and whites must take sides.

Publishers Weekly Review: The author of The Hermit King vividly details the clash of complex passions aroused by a small Alabama town's halting mid-century march from Old South status quo toward integration and civil rights. O. B. Brewster escaped from sharecropping into major league baseball until a knee injury sent him back to Hammond, Ala., a hometown hero. His childhood friend Eldon Long, a black man who is now pastor of the Mount Sinai A.M.E. Zion Church, wants him to run for mayor against longtime incumbent Mac McClellon. Eldon sees O.B. as the only white man who can bridge the racial gap in Hammond, while Mac pleads with him to neutralize the Negroes before "some outside agitators" stir up trouble and cause a big paper company to cancel its plans to build a mill there. When Eldon brings two Yankee organizers to town to lead sit-ins and other protests, the Klan responds with violence that pushes O.B. into the mayoral race. Deftly and movingly, Cobb conveys the courage of his terrified black characters, who must walk past hundreds of hostile, jeering whites to a sit-in at a local cafe. He also depicts O.B.'s romance with Eldon's wife, Cora, improbable in 1961 Alabama, with considerable credibility. ( Sept. )

Kirkus Reviews A Deep South town erupts during the Civil Rights period in this ambitious third novel (after Cobb's Hermit King, etc.--not reviewed). Hammond is as segregated as any other Alabama town in 1961, but Eldon Long, pastor of its biggest black church and a follower of Dr. King, plans W change all that. His chief antagonists are the Mayor--banker Mac McClellon, anxious to preserve Hammond's image of racial calm--and Rooster Wembley, one-legged barber and Klan leader. Man-in-the-middle is O.B. Brewster, a local hero because he was once a professional ballplayer. O.B. has a farm-implement dealership with a largely black clientele; he is the only white man Eldon trusts, and the pastor is prodding him to run against Mac. Two white SNCC volunteers arrive; a lunch-counter sit-in is tense but peaceful. Then a boycott of white-owned businesses begins, and O.B. hurts badly; the turning point comes when he returns to his country roots, grasps the meaning of love-thy-neighbor, and decides to run for mayor. So far, so good; Cobb's people may be players in a racial drama first, individuals second, but the battle-lines are cleanly drawn and O.B.'s conversion is powerful and moving. Then, however, Cobb overloads his story with a torrid love-triangle involving Eldon, his wife Cora, and O.B., and with a wildfire romance between O.B.'s daughter Ellen and SNCC volunteer Paul, which triggers a near-fatal back-alley abortion for Ellen and the abduction of Paul and his fellow-activist by the Klan. Paul escapes, and all credibility is shattered when he hides in O.B.'s house for a month undetected. The sure touch Cobb showed earlier disappears completely in a last-minute flurry of arrests, breakdowns, and deaths. When Cobb is good (his taut confrontations, his quieter moments showing old people sitting around being old), he is very, very good; when he is bad, his writing dissolves into clichÉs. A maddeningly uneven work.
(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 1992)
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
1575871580 : Paperback
0380718324 : Paperback - Mass Market
0688113664 : Hardcover
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults, published by Oryx Press
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 020560

In my father's house
Author: Gaines, Ernest J., 1933-
The arrival in a southern town of a young, unkempt man results in a sudden confrontation with past sin and error on the part of the town's most respected Black man, Reverend Phillip Martin

Knopf, 1978, 214p.

Kirkus Reviews The quietly repressed tension in the opening chapters here--a dead-eyed young stranger appears in the black section of St. Adrienne, Louisiana--seems to be revving up a subtly gripping and artfully shaped narrative. What Gaines (The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman) actually delivers turns out to be neither subtle nor shapely, nor especially original, but on every page there's an authentic moment, or a dead-right knot of conversation, or a truer-than-true turn of phrase--enough of them to carry you through to the overly theatrical finale. That wine-drinking, street-walking, gun-toting stranger calls himself Robert X, but he is really Etienne Martin, come to town to kill the father who abandoned him 21 years ago: Rev. Phillip J. Martin, the Martin Luther King of St. Adrienne. Phillip is 60 now, a loving (second) family man and Christian, but when he recognizes yet can't remember the name of his denied son--at a civil rights soirÉ--he falls to the floor, swamped with guilt for the sins that no amount of good works has really made up for. Desperate for a reconciliation, Phillip betrays the movement (to get his son out of jail he promises that an upcoming demonstration will be scrapped), but his son scorns him, the movement leaders vote him out, and all he can do is try to reach his son indirectly--by learning all he can about the common-law wife and children he deserted. The father's journey-search for his son (reminiscent of everybody from Alan Paton to Toni Morrison) takes him into the back streets of Baton Rouge, where an old friend fills him in on Etienne's tortured life, where he debates with a burn-baby-burn black guerrilla, and where he receives the news that Etienne has drowned himself back in St. Adrienne. Despair and loss of faith ("How come He stood by me all those years, but not today?"), followed by growth--the ability to turn to his wife for help--and renewal: "We just go'n to have to start again." Since we hardly get to know Phillip before his great trauma, this novel doesn't really work as a character study; nor does it quite click as a parable of generation gaps in the post-King (the action is set in 1970) civil rights movement. But Gaines' people talk real talk and walk real streets--and these bedrock strengths of observation can survive even the most blatant or uncoordinated twirling of themes.
(Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 1978)
Other related features:

1. Book Discussion Guide - A Gathering of Old Men

2. Book Discussion Guide - A Lesson Before Dying
Author Web Sites:

1. About the Author : Features a biographical sketch of Gaines.
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0679727914 : Paperback
0394479386 : Hardcover
0800750020 : Paperback
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 028693

Bombingham: a novel
Anthony Grooms
Author: Grooms, Anthony
A soldier in Vietnam becomes sucked into the Civil Rights movement through a letter written home to the parents of a friend killed in Birmingham's early 1960s wave of racially motivated violence.

New York: Free Press, c2001, vii, 304 p.

Booklist Review: As a group of black soldiers trek across a rice field in an unnamed year during the Vietnam War, banter about home triggers for one soldier, Walter Burke, a Proustlike recollection of his not-so-distant past growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, at the dawn of the civil rights movement. Birmingham, Walter points out to his friends, was dubbed “Bombingham” by the city’s black residents for the infamous Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing and other acts of terrorism by the Ku Klux Klan. A torrent of memories quickly follows: joys of early childhood freedom, the sharp sting of first encounters with virulent racists, and his mother’s long battle with cancer that brings the family to the verge of disintegration. The family crisis is the center of Grooms’ novel, placing the momentous civil rights battles in the background. The effect is convincing, reinforcing the idea that a child takes a small perspective of the world at large. The result is a captivating and unsentimental recollection of daily life in the segregated South.
(Reviewed August 1, 2001) -- Ted Leventhal

School Library Journal Review: Adult/High School–Walter Burke, a foot soldier serving in Vietnam, is trying to write a letter to the family of a friend who has been killed, but he can't find the right words. Memories triggered, he veers from the horrors of the present to those of his past as a black child in Alabama at the dawn of the civil rights movement. All mental paths lead to an examination of violence (sometimes graphically portrayed). Though the narrative returns to Vietnam periodically, this is chiefly the story of a period in Walter's childhood in Birmingham, whose black residents have dubbed "Bombingham" in recognition of the KKK's preferred method of attack there. Walter may be seeing an epic struggle, but he is young and his view is artless: he simply notes that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "spoke encouragingly" to the crowd; and when he sees Dr. Abernathy arrested, he is most troubled by the lack of respect shown the man. His worldview is dominated by his family life; that, too, is in crisis, and his best friend leads him into every sort of trouble, including dangerous encounters with police at demonstrations. Some readers will be frustrated by the novel's slow accretion of detail and meandering plot, but those who can adjust to the pace of the protagonist's thoughtful inner life will come to know and like him, and have a vivid and memorable experience of his world.–Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA (Reviewed March 1, 2002) (School Library Journal, vol 48, issue 3, p260)

Publishers Weekly Review: /* Starred Review */ At the center of Grooms's riveting first novel is Walter Burke, a black American soldier in Vietnam who is attempting to compose a letter to the parents of one of his fallen comrades. The bulk of the novel occurs in flashback, focusing on Walter's turbulent adolescence in Tittusville, the Birmingham suburb where he lived with his parents and younger sister, Josie. (The title refers to violence surrounding the civil rights movement.) Walter's parents, who refuse to participate in boycotts and rallies, try to shield the children from the turmoil stoked by redneck police commissioner (and rumored KKK grand dragon) Bull Connor. But when their mother is diagnosed with brain cancer, things begin to fall apart. Choosing religion over medicine, their mother deteriorates rapidly—both mentally and physically—and their exasperated father, a teacher and staunch advocate of "thinking scientifically," begins a corresponding descent into alcoholism, eventually leaving home to live in a motel. Encouraged by Walter's best friend, Lamar Burrell, and Lamar's activist mother, Walter and Josie find themselves at the front lines of the struggle for civil rights, secretly attending meetings, going to demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr., and ultimately facing police dogs and fire hoses. Whether describing the daily indignities of life under Jim Crow laws or the ignorance and brutality of the men who enforce them, Grooms writes with grace and clarity, never resorting to sentimentality or gratuitous button-pushing. Though Walter contends that "the world is a tumultuous place and every soul in it suffers," Grooms confronts this suffering head-on, showing that hope and dignity sometimes can be reclaimed in the process. This is a powerful, important debut. (Oct. 1)
— Staff (Reviewed September 24, 2001) (Publishers Weekly, vol 248, issue 39, p66)

Library Journal Review: Poet and short-story writer Grooms (Trouble No More) has written a moving novel about the destruction of hope. Narrator Walter recalls being swept up with his sister in the Civil Rights marches in Birmingham at a time when their mother lay dying of cancer and their father drifted into alcoholism. As Walter awakened to the hopes and dreams of freedom through the teachings of the Civil Rights leaders, his own ability to dream and hope withered with the physical death of his mother and the spiritual death of his father. Walter looks back on this period of his life from the midst of the carnage of the Vietnam War, in which he is both victim and perpetrator. Although apparently callous to the deaths surrounding him, he is troubled by his lack of emotions. Retracing his past offers no answers and no healing. Grooms provides a vivid picture of the heady and confusing days of the fight for civil rights in Birmingham, the historical conditions of racism accompanied by arbitrary death and violence, and a young boy spiritually wounded by social injustice, violence, and the disintegration of his family. Highly recommended for all libraries.—Rebecca Stuhr, Grinnell Coll. Libs., IA (Reviewed August 1, 2001) (Library Journal, vol 126, issue 13, p161)

Kirkus Reviews An engaging though loosely woven debut about an African-American boy who experiences the death of his mother—and the words of Martin Luther King—in the same year.
Walter Burke trudges toward a village in Vietnam and watches a pair of friends die in a firefight. Composing a letter to their families turns his thoughts to his turbulent youth in Birmingham, Alabama. Flashing back, Grooms, an award-winning short-story writer, poet, and essayist, does a lovely job of sketching such timeless aspects of Walter's and his friend Lamar's boyhood as their search for specimens to examine under Lamar's microscope, even as he nails the details of institutionalized racism in the 1960s. As children, Walter and his sister Josie share as their most pressing concern the declining health of their mother Clara, who refuses to seek medical assistance. It seems Clara has adopted a fatalist's stance toward her cancer—driven, Walter suspects, by her memory of her own father's senseless death years ago on trumped-up charges of raping a white woman. Her frustrated husband Carl finds solace in area bars. Meanwhile, civil rights marches, boycotts, and protests gather force. Grooms vividly evokes these stirring events, as well as Walter's cruel experiences at the receiving end of police brutality; the boy's cathartic transformation during a particularly brutal assault is especially persuasive. Then Aunt Bennie comes from Philadelphia to help her sister Clara, Josie is dragged into jail after her dog is viciously killed by a police canine, Clara dies, Carl is never reconciled to her death, and Walter ships out for Vietnam—which returns us to Bombingham's opening scene.
Powerfully crafted individual moments and honestly drawn emotions, but first-timer Grooms can't quite synthesize them into a unified whole.
(Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2001)
Other related features:

1. Awards (Best Fiction) - Young Adult -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> Booklist Editors' Choice -> Adult Fiction for Young Adults -> 2001

2. Book Discussion Guide - Four Spirits
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0743205588
0345452933 : Paperback
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 065974

Great Neck: a novel
Jay Cantor
Author: Cantor, Jay
Describes a group of friends, black and white, growing up radical amid the turbulence of the sixties and seventies, following them from their 1960 sixth-grade class in Great Neck to their involvement in civil rights and peace movements.

New York: Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 2002, 784 p.

Booklist Review: /*Starred Review*/ Prosperous and pastoral Great Neck, New York, seems like the Promised Land to its Jewish denizens in 1960, but Dr. Leo Jacobs, an Auschwitz survivor, is steeped in guilt, and when sixth-grader Billy Green learns about the Holocaust, he nearly has a breakdown. Billy’s father made his fortune in comic books, and Billy soon learns to channel his horror into comics of his own devising, inventive sagas that eventually fictionalize the increasingly complicated and risky lives of his Great Neck friends as they are inexorably drawn into the civil rights and antiwar movements, especially Frank, who travels to Mississippi as a Freedom Rider and is murdered, and Beth, his lover, who becomes an ultraradical forced to live underground. A bold and penetrating novelist dedicated to exploring the psychology of revolution, Cantor, a MacArthur fellow and author of The Death of Che Guervara (1983) and Krazy Kat (1988), works on a Tolstoyian scale as he maps a historic time of violent and necessary change, and illuminates the evolving psyches of a diverse cast of compelling characters as deeply affected by the legacies of anti-Semitism and racism as by their involvement in a many-faceted, epic struggle for justice. Thirteen years in the making, this is a virtuosic work of heart and genius, a great, singing web of a novel.
(Reviewed December 15, 2002) -- Donna Seaman

Publishers Weekly Review: Weighing in at nearly 800 pages, Cantor's epic effort to frame the experience of growing up Jewish on Long Island with the radicalism of the '60s and '70s is a chaotic, unfocused sprawl, a book bursting with an overwhelming number of subplots, characters, tangents and the occasional illuminating episode. Cantor introduces his core Long Island peer group in the early chapters, with the most compelling sections exploring the dilemma of Beth Jacobs, an activist who escapes imprisonment after being indicted for a bombing at MIT, only to find herself incarcerated with her African-American counterpart after a robbery goes awry. Cantor then bounces back and forth between the Long Island story lines and those dealing with the African-American group of civil rights activists. Members of the huge cast of characters include Beth's longtime friend Laura, an psychoanalyst with multiple sclerosis; brilliant, scrawny comic book artist Billy Green, who transforms his friends into superheroes; hardcore militant Sugar Cane; and Jacob Battle, a more conflicted revolutionary. Cantor is an accomplished writer who churns up enough material for at least two decent novels here, and both the coming-of-age stories and the race-related material might have worked nicely as either stand-alone books or as part of an ongoing series. But in a single volume, his hyperactive plotting renders parts of the book almost unreadable. The author employed this sort of comprehensive narrative style successfully in The Death of Che Guevara, but given the familiarity of the material, the elliptical, labyrinthine nature of this book will try the patience of even his most avid fans. Author tour.(Jan.)
— Staff (Reviewed November 18, 2002) (Publishers Weekly, vol 249, issue 46, p43)

Library Journal Review: Can a novel be too well realized? Can it give too much detail, insight, and elaboration? These are questions to be asked of Cantor's epic folio, which starts in 1960 with a group of largely Jewish grade schoolers on Long Island learning the lessons of the Holocaust, then takes them through the radical decades of Freedom Summer, Weathermen, Black Power, bombs, and courts—as both defenders and defended. Meanwhile, the group is immortalized through comic-book characters drawn in their image by another member of the group (Billy Bad Ears, in the comic), a genius and best-selling cult favorite. In Cantor's third novel (after The Death of Che Guevara and Krazy Kat), the writing is top-notch, the situations well realized, and the subject interesting. The result will appeal to those who share the book's demographic. As for those outside of it, many will start, but few will finish, as the book overwhelms our need to know. Inside this book there may be a stunning 450-page novel waiting to emerge. For large fiction collections.—Robert E. Brown, Minoa Lib., NY (Reviewed December 15, 2002) (Library Journal, vol 127, issue 20, p176)

Kirkus Reviews A subparticle look at privileged Long Island Jewish kids who manage to zap themselves to all the right places at all the right times for a comprehensive pseudohistory.

What can possibly be the response of a gang of Jewish Great Neck suburban rats—as drawn to comic books as to The Four Quartets—to the madness of the 1960s? A bout of pneumonia and some timely psychoanalysis for Billy Green serves as the trigger for his starting a comic book that's honed by the conscience of the Talmud and eventually comes to define these kids' understanding of their place in the mayhem of America's most colorful decade. At first, they just wait patiently for their various bat mitzvahs and long to go to each other's brisses. When a rabbi warns that Jews "leave us. They go into politics. They embrace millennial movements—like communism, like the civil rights movement—chimeras that promise justice for all," might he be referring to Billy and his gang of semiadult superheroes? The characters in his comics, with their real-life inspirations, are called things like Jeffrey the Sophist, SheWolf, and Ninja B in a tone that's one of high art meeting low art and finally the police report—though it's long ago that the gang was busted for whatever violence the plot is eventually going to embrace. It's simple enough—the death of a pal sends the group headlong into the fray—and from there it's a tour of the familiar '60s: Medgar Evers, Dr. King, Cassius Clay, JFK, My Lai, Andy Warhol, the Democratic Convention. Meanwhile, as third-novelist Cantor (<BH>Krazy Kat, not reviewed) indulges perhaps a bit too frequently the comic motif, we get lots of sentences like "SheWolf, confused—perhaps even tempted for a moment—looks toward Athena X."

Comprehensive and amusing. At 13 years in the making, should we be surprised that it's too long?
(Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2002)
Other related features:

1. Awards (Best Fiction) - Adult -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> Booklist Editors' Choice -> Best Fiction 2003

2. Awards (Best Fiction) - Adult -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> New York Times Notable Books -> Fiction and Poetry -> 2003
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0375413944
0375713395
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20030420
• TID: 072216

Black angels
by Rita Murphy
Author: Murphy, Rita
The summer of 1961 brings change to eleven-year-old Celli and her town of Mystic, Georgia, when her beloved Sophie becomes involved in the Civil Rights Movement and Celli learns a secret about the father who left her and her family long ago.

New York: Delacorte Press, 2001, 163 p.

Booklist Review:
Gr. 5-7. It’s the summer of 1961 in the segregated town of Mystic, Georgia, and Celli, 11, is caught up in the turmoil when the freedom riders and local black leaders clash with the racists, including the Klan. Celli lives on the white side of town, but she’s closely bonded with her black housekeeper and friend, Sophie, and there’s no prejudice in her home. The name-calling (including "nigger" and "Jew-nigger") sickens Celli. Then her grandmother Pearl, who is black, arrives, and Celli learns for the first time that the dad who left soon after she was born was half-black and passing for white, and that he was unable to find a home in either world. The plot creaks with every contrivance, including the fact that Celli’s mother is conveniently away on a month’s vacation while all this is going on. What will hold readers is the young girl's viewpoint of politics coming to town and right into her home.
(Reviewed February 1, 2001) -- Hazel Rochman

School Library Journal Review: Gr 5-7-Celli is growing up in small-town Georgia in 1961. At 11, she sees the racial divide but is not drawn into it until Sophie, the African-American maid who cares for her and her brother each summer, begins to speak out against segregation. The girl's feelings are set in turmoil when she meets her father's mother and discovers that her father, who deserted the family years earlier, is black. When a peaceful demonstration turns violent and Sophie is arrested, Celli tries to free her and rescues a part black, part Jewish boy who has been set up for a crime he didn't commit. While the plot has sufficient interest and excitement to draw readers into the story, it is sometimes hard to believe in the characters and their actions, and information is sometimes awkwardly integrated into the story. The angels of the title are equally puzzling. Young, naked, and black, they hover at the edges of the plot, appearing and disappearing. They bring Celli the ribbon the demonstrators are wearing for solidarity and later wave and blow kisses to her. Though readers will learn something about what a segregated southern town was like and gain some insight into civil rights struggles in the 1960s, this book is not successful as fiction. Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 (Delacorte, 1995) and Ossie Davis's Just Like Martin (S & S, 1992) are better stories dealing with this period.- Louise L. Sherman, formerly at Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews Narrator 11-year-old Celli lives in segregated Macon, Georgia, with her mother and brother; her father left years earlier. Celli also considers Sophie, an outspoken African-American woman who cooks and cleans for them, to be a part of the family. In 1961, when Celli's mother leaves for a month, Sophie takes care of the children. One evening she takes Celli to a church meeting where the congregation is planning a visit from the Freedom Riders. The resulting civil-rights demonstration lands Sophie in jail and pushes Celli into helping a man pursued by the Klan. Celli also meets, for the first time, her Ohio grandmother who has come with the Freedom Riders. The girl is shocked that her grandmother is African-American and even more shocked to learn that this means her light-skinned father was, too. Celli's rather too-quick adjustment to these surprises can only be explained by her relationship with Sophie and for all its drama, the story falls short of engaging the reader emotionally. The well-intentioned exploration of civil rights and racial identity tends to override the development of the characters, who remain largely one-dimensional, while strained elements of magical realism reinforce the reader's distance. Celli opens her story by describing angels that only she sees, as "Three naked black girls with creamy white wings, throwing stones on my hopscotch board." The angels appear most days, eating angel food, picking blossoms, and, near the end, playing poker on the garage roof. Murphy's strong lyrical writing was used to far better effect in her first novel, Night Flying (2000), where the magical realism was well integrated into the story. Here she has tackled tough issues in too-little depth, with symbolism that obscures rather than enlightens. Still, the story itself is a good one and has its own rewards. (Fiction. 10-13)
(Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2001)
Other related features:

1. Teaching with Fiction - Fiction from the 50 States: Florida, Alabama and Georgia
Author Web Sites:

1. Rita Murphy : Features a December 2000 interview of Murphy.
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0385327765
0440229340 : Paperback - Mass Market
0613577019 : Glued Binding
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20040620
• TID: 124837

Martin's big words: the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Doreen Rappaport ; illustrations by Bryan Collier
Author: Rappaport, Doreen
A picture book biography introduces the ideas and accomplishments of a gifted and influential speaker by using some of his own words to tell the story.

New York: Hyperion Books for Children, c2001, 40 p.

Publishers Weekly Review: This picture-book biography provides an ideal introduction to this leader and his works. Juxtaposing original text with quotes from King's writing and speeches, Rappaport's (Escape from Slavery) narrative offers a pastiche of scenes from King's life, beginning with his childhood experience of seeing "White Only" signs sprinkled throughout his hometown. He questions his mother about their meaning, and she assures him, "You are as good as anyone." Listening to his father preach, the boy asserts that "When I grow up, I'm going to get big words, too." Rappaport also touches upon King's role in the Montgomery bus strike that followed Rosa Park's 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger and his subsequent efforts as a civil rights crusader. After briefly describing the circumstances of his death, the story concludes, quite abruptly, with the statement, "His big words are alive for us today." The author relies on her subject's own words, and his power, passion and pacifism shine through. Collier's (Uptown) striking watercolor and cut paper collage art feature closely focused, lifelike images of King and other individuals against an inventive montage of patterns and textures. The portraits of King exude his spiritual strength and peaceful visage. In the background of some scenes are intricate recreations of stained glass windows, which, Collier explains in an introductory note, he interprets as a metaphor for King's life. An elegant, understated pictorial biography. Ages 5-9. (Sept.)
— Staff (Reviewed October 8, 2001) (Publishers Weekly, vol 248, issue 41, p64)

Kirkus Reviews /* Starred Review */ Beginning with the startling cover, which contains only the face of Martin Luther King Jr., with his smile broad, and his eyes crinkled in laughter, this title intrigues. It's an homage in words and pictures, in which the author weaves King's words with her own to present a brief but stately portrait of the American hero. Rappaport explains that as a child King was determined to use "big words," no doubt the result of listening to his father preach. On many subsequent spreads, King is pictured as an adult, and a direct quote is reproduced in bold type. In fact, King's words were huge in idealism, delivering a message that was big in simple yet profound ways that can be understood by young readers. In smaller print, Rappaport gives historical context. Her sentences have a directness and symmetry that sets off King's more transcendent, poetic quotes. Collier's watercolor and cut-paper-collage illustrations express deep feeling. On the cover and final two portraits, King is depicted with a subtle monochromatic technique, which alludes strongly to a stained-glass metaphor, represented in portraits of King's church. In other spreads featuring King himself, his face is lit, giving it a powerful visual weight and compelling readers to pay attention. While the cover portrait shows his eyes glancing to the side, in the final portrait he looks directly at the reader, his eyes offering an unmistakable challenge. Author and Illustrator Notes are moving as well as informative, and quotes are attributed. Readers will hear his voice echo in this presentation. (timeline, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 5-9)
(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2001)
Other related features:

1. Doreen Rappaport's Web Site : Features author, book, and contact information, plus educational resources.
Other Contributors:
Collier, Bryan: illustrator
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0786807148
078682591X
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20040820
• TID: 126683

Leon's story
Leon Tillage, with pictures by Susan L. Roth
Author: Tillage, Leon Walter, 1936-
The son of a North Carolina sharecropper recalls the hard times faced by his family and other African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century and the changes that the civil rights movement helped bring about.

New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997, 107 p.

Kirkus Reviews Tillage, a black custodian in a Baltimore private school, reminisces about his childhood as a sharecropper's son in the South, and his youth as a civil-rights protester. He explains the mechanics of sharecropping and segregation, tells of his mistreatment and his father's murder at the hands of white teenagers out to "have some fun," and relates his experiences with police dogs, fire hoses, and jail while following Martin Luther King's ideas of nonviolent protest. Tillage matter-of-factly recounts horrific events, using spare language that is laced with remarkable wisdom, compassion, and optimism. Such gentleness only gives his story more power, as he drives home the harder realities of his childhood. Although the collage illustrations are interesting, they are too moody and remote for the human spirit behind the words, and readers will regret Roth's decision--especially in light of the boy smiling so brightly on the cover--that "even one photo would be too many for Leon Walter Tillage's words.
(Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 1997)
Other related features:

1. Awards (Best Fiction) - Children's -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> Parents' Choice Award -> Story Books category -> 1998 -> Gold Awards

2. Awards (Best Fiction) - Young Adult -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> Parents' Choice Award -> Story Books category -> 1998 -> Gold Awards

3. Explore Fiction - Children's -> Explore Fiction -> Realistic Fiction -> Problems: Racism

4. Teaching with Fiction - Read-Aloud Novels for Grades 6-8
Other Contributors:
Roth, Susan L.: ill
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0374343799
0374443300 : Paperback - Juvenile
0613305507 : Glued Binding
0606203974 : DEMCO Turtleback - Juvenile
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20041120
• TID: 129392

Short stories of the civil rights movement: an anthology
edited by Margaret Earley Whitt
Author: Various Authors
Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2006, 320 p.

Contents:
See what tomorrow brings (1968) / James W. Thompson -- The first day of school (1958) / R.V. Cassill -- Neighbors (1966) / Diane Oliver -- Spring is now (1968) / Joan Williams -- The beginning of violence (1985) / Joanne Leedom-Ackerman -- The welcome table (1996) / Lee Martin -- Food that pleases, food to take home (1995) / Anthony Grooms -- Direct action (1963) / Mike Thelwell -- Doris is coming (2003) / Z Z Packer -- Negro progress (1994) / Anthony Grooms -- The marchers (1979) / Henry Dumas -- Moonshot (1989) / Alma Jean Billingslea-Brown -- Selma (1972) / Natalie L. M. Petesch -- Marching through Boston (1966) / John Updike -- The convert (1963) / Lerone Bennett Jr. -- Where is the voice coming from? (1963) / Eudora Welty -- Liars don't qualify (1961) / Junius Edwards -- Advancing Luna-- and Ida B. Wells (1977) / Alice Walker -- Means and ends (1985) / Rosellen Brown -- Going to meet the man (1965) / James Baldwin -- Flora Devine (1995) / Anthony Grooms -- Paying my dues (1996) / Val Coleman -- To my young husband (2000) / Alice Walker.
Other Contributors:
Whitt, Margaret Earley, 1946-: editor
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0820327999
0820328510
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Added to NoveList: 20061020
• TID: 149882

Streets of fire
Author: Cook, Thomas H.
Ben Wellman carefully investigates the death of a young black girl found in a shallow grave during the 1963 freedom marches.

Publishers Weekly Review: In this expert, relentless detective novel by the author of Flesh and Blood and last year's Edgar-nominated Sacrificial Ground , the sweltering, angry summer of 1963 in Birmingham, Ala., serves to make every crime a powderkeg of racial tension. As the rest of the police force is being called upon to hose demonstrators, to arrest marching schoolchildren and even to take notes on Martin Luther King's speeches for their inflammatory content, detective Ben Wellman investigates the rape and murder of a deaf 12-year-old black girl. Wellman's boss wants him to make a minor show of concern without really pursuing the criminal, the black community greets his efforts with mistrust and skepticism, and his fellow cops, most of them rednecks and racists, view his dedication as misplaced. As Wellman probes further, he discovers that all sides have reasons to hope that the case remains unsolved. Cook doesn't use the civil rights movement merely as a conveniently atmospheric backdrop; he weaves it through the plot in sharp, unexpected ways, never letting his focus stray too far from Wellman's dogged attempt to find an elusive killer. Paperback rights to Warner Books; movie rights to Hollywood Pictures; Preferred Choice and Detective Book Club selections; BOMC and Mys terious Book Club alternates. (Sept.)

Library Journal Review: Set in Birmingham, Alabama, in May 1963, amid the social upheaval of the Freedom Marches led by Martin Luther King Jr., this powerful crime novel evokes all of the emotionalism that prevailed at the time. The body of a little black girl is found in a shallow grave in a football field in Bearmatch, a poor black district of the city. Homicide sergeant Ben Wellman uses all of his tolerance and training during the investigation, which meets with resistance and prejudice from the police and the black community. Cook, nominated for a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Sacrificial Ground (LJ 3/1/88), reaffirms his ability to create realistic characterization and vivid narrative, then wrap it all up in a tightly plotted, cleverly clued mystery. Sure to be one of the big books of 1989. BOMC and Mystery Book Club featured alternates; Preferred Choice Book Club main selection.-- Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio

Kirkus Reviews Southern-born Cook is no stranger to Alabamian policemen (Flesh and Blood, Blood Innocents) and here creates honest, thoughtful Birmingham cop Ben Wellman, who in May of '63--while most of the force, the guard, the fire department, and the politicians are determined to keep Dr. King and the civil-rights demonstrators away from city hall--is assigned the murder/rape of a little girl in the (black) Bearwatch district. Employing the nonshowy, stodgy, but persistent type of police-work rarely devoted to the nonwhite cases, Wellman riles the Black Cat Boys--strongarm cops who usually patrol the district--his superiors, odd-matched partners Daniels and Breedlove (one's a racist, the other an FBI Informer), and Bearwatch kingpin (whores, drugs, pool hall) Roy Jolly and his muscle, Gaylord, in an attempt to match a gaudy, oversize ring found on the battered young Doreen with a suspect. Clues lead to retarded giant Bluto, who lives in a storm drain (where he's killed). Doreen's employers, the bigoted Davenports, insist that the girl was driven home, but a witness demurs, setting up the Black Cat Boys, whose secret room is a white supremacist's temple. Meanwhile, partner Breedlove is murdered; the cops are getting meaner with the demonstrators; and Wellman barely foils an assassinate-King plot before untangling why Doreen died. Well told until the ending, which--in typical Cook hyperbolic, out-of-left-field fashion--undermines what preceded it. However, Wellman's emerging racial consciousness, the tension between the rank-and-file cops/firemen and the redneck chiefs, the doomed relationship between a white officer and a black woman, and the one that never quite starts between Wellman and Doreen's aunt, are powerful and moving. It only Cook could restrain his penchant for pulp-fiction, tumultuous wrap-ups. . .
(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 1989)
Other titles associated with this book:
Fiery streets
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0446359726 : Paperback - Mass Market
0399134905 : Hardcover
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults, published by Oryx Press
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 021420

Innocence that kills, The
Author: Levitsky, Ronald
When civil rights lawyer Nate Rosen returns to Chicago to try a case and spend time with his fifteen-year-old daughter, he finds himself embroiled in the possible molestation of one of his daughter's schoolmates by a teacher and the murder of another young girl

Kirkus Reviews After defending civil-rights cases from Virginia (The Love That Kills, 1991) to North Dakota (Stone Boy, 1993), Nate Rosen comes home to Chicago to visit his 15-year-old daughter Sarah -- and walks into the middle of an even more volatile case: Sarah's friend Nina Melendez, whose mother and aunt (primed by Nina's diary) have accused her teacher Martin Bixby of molesting her, is found at the bottom of a convenient ravine. Case closed, say the relieved Evanston police; and Nate, joining Nina's cleaning-lady mother, Esther and her artist aunt Lucila for some straight answers, finds himself stonewalled by everybody from the spineless school principal to the EIlsworths, Esther's posh employers, to his own ex-wife, a colleague of Bixby's. Nate's even divided against himself, as the civil-rights lawyer in him slugs it out with the overprotective father. The sorry answers in the case take Nate far beyond the question of Bixby's guilt and the welfare of the kids in Arbor Shore High School for a walk on cushy suburbia's wildest side-seen here as if by a sympathetic foreign observer with compassion and surgical precision.
(Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 1994)
Other titles associated with this book:
Innocence kills
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0684197073
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 004453

Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The
Author: Gaines, Ernest J., 1933-
Miss Jane Pittman is 110 when she recalls her childhood and the arrival of both Union and Confederate troops on the plantation where she lived.

Dial Press, 1971, 245p.

Kirkus Reviews Gaines's Miss Jane is an invented character roughly in the standard mammy mold, but with such strong personal presence that readers may still have to remind themselves this is fiction. Born a slave on a Louisiana plantation, she was not yet in her teens when emancipation came and she began her journey toward freedom as a literal walk overland to Ohio. When her narrative ends she is still moving out to join the freedom marchers though she is well over one hundred and has made precious little progress geographically or legally. To that extent her story is that of the southern Negro, particularly the southern Negro woman, and its private incidents reflect matters of public record. What distinguishes this account is the sustained, gritty characterization and its definitely personal slant on representative people and events. Miss Jane has been persuaded to reminisce by a young historian hoping to find "material" he can "use." The difference between material and a life is quietly brought home, but that is finally the point that dominates all others just as it is Miss Jane who seems strangely to have the upper hand with circumstances beyond her control. Artless art with a strong cumulative effect.
(Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 1971)
Other related features:

1. Annotated Book List - The Roots of Modern African American Fiction

2. Author Read-Alike - Alex Haley

3. Book Discussion Guide - A Gathering of Old Men

4. Book Discussion Guide - A Lesson Before Dying

5. Book Discussion Guide - The Known World

6. Book Discussion Guide - The Polished Hoe

7. Book Discussion Guide - The Stone Diaries
Author Web Sites:

1. About the Author : Features a biographical sketch of Gaines.
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0553263579 : Paperback - Mass Market
0881035629 : Glued Binding
0606022139 : DEMCO Turtleback - Juvenile
0395869935 : Hardcover - Classroom Text
0786110538 : Cassette - Audio
0812415124 : Glued Binding
0385240171 : Hardcover
0816160104 : Hardcover - Large Print
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults, published by Oryx Press
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 028689

Dreamer: a novel
Author: Johnson, Charles Richard, 1948-
Martin Luther King Jr.'s last two years would have been different if he had had other dreams.

ISBNs Associated with this Title:
068481224X
0684854430 : Paperback
0671582402 : Cassette - Audio
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults, published by Oryx Press
• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 036446

Monkey suit, The: and other short fiction on African Americans and justice
Author: Troutt, David Dante
A collection of ten short, fictional stories based on and illuminating major legal cases involving the struggle of African Americans for civil and human rights includes Buchanan v. Warley, the first challenge to the constitutionality of segregation.

New York: New Press, 1998, 320 p.

Booklist Review: /*Starred Review*/ In 10 powerful short stories, Troutt traces both the brutal history of the African slave and the African American struggle for civil rights. While following the tradition of "legal storytelling" practiced by Derrick Bell and Richard Delgado, Troutt's collection stretches the genre almost to pure fiction. The work is shaped by law, to be sure, but the characterizations and compelling narrative style move the material away from legal formalities and to the lofty humanism of fine fiction. The skill with which Troutt, a writer disguised as a law professor, renders horrific experiences will remind some readers of Richard Wright's work. In occupying the interior worlds of the victims, Troutt makes their brutal circumstances poignant, and they themselves become more human as their tormentors become more monstrous. Mercifully, in the last story, "Monkey Suit," the mother firmly reminds her son (and the traumatized reader) that times have changed, that "this ain't then." For people familiar with the law, four of the stories reflect Supreme Court cases: the Scottsboro travesty in "For Love of Trains"; warrantless searches in "Bitch, Son of a Bitch"; segregation ordinances in "The Bargain"; and the constitutionality of a Reconstruction-era statute in "Never Was." None of the 10 stories mentions the doctrines they represent; most of them posit a viewpoint on racial inequity that will not soon be forgotten by readers. ((Reviewed February 15, 1998)) -- Bonnie Smothers

Library Journal Review: In this unique collection, which reveals African American history as a relentless struggle for civil rights, Troutt (law, Rutgers Univ.) fictionalizes ten legal cases, including Powell v. Alabama (1932), the principal Scottsboro Boys case; Buchanan v. Warley (1917), the first challenge to the constitutionality of segregation; and Mapp v. Ohio (1961), in which warrantless searches were deemed unconstitutional. Most of these finely crafted short stories read well, though the opening piece, "Glow in the Dark," does not; it is told in dialect, which weighs it down. Other stories transform the legal cases while assuming an individual vitality that bodes well for reading. Recommended for public libraries and for all African American studies collections.--Fannette H. Thomas, Essex Community Coll., Baltimore
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
1565843266
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 059812

Return of Gabriel, The
John Armistead
Author: Armistead, John
In the summer of 1964, a thirteen-year-old white boy whose best friend is black is caught in the middle when civil rights workers and Ku Klux Klan members clash in a small town near Tupelo, Mississippi.

Minneapolis, Minn.: Milkweed Editions, 2002, 218 p.

Booklist Review: Gr. 6-9. The lives of friends Cooper Grant, Jubal Harris, and “Squirrel” Kogan are changed forever when the freedom movement explodes in their small Mississippi town in 1964. At 13, the boys are old enough to understand the issues and know that their bonds will be tested as their families and communities take sides in the escalating conflict. The boys’ families have been linked for generations; Jubal’s mother cooks for the Grants, and Cooper attends the Harrises’ church, Oak Grove Baptist. Cooper’s uncle supports the burgeoning voter-registration movement, but his dad attends Klan rallies. When Cooper learns about Klan activities, he faces a terrifying dilemma. What if beloved community members are killed and he had knowledge of the plans? Should he play the role of angel Gabriel and secretly warn the folks whose lives are in danger? What if he’s found out? Armistead tells a powerful story, with solid characterizations and a finely paced, page-turning plot. It’s not only a flashback to earlier times but also a potent, thought-provoking political scenario.
(Reviewed December 15, 2002) -- Anne O'Malley

School Library Journal Review: Gr 5-8–The summer of 1964 begins simply enough for Cooper, Jubal, and Squirrel, the founding members of a secret club called the Scorpions. Their biggest concern is to finish building their fort and impress the local bully, Reno McCarthy. Life becomes much more complicated for these three friends who come from different racial and religious backgrounds, when civil rights workers come to their small Mississippi town and encourage the blacks there to vote. The Ku Klux Klan responds with intimidation and terrorism. A cross is burned in front of Squirrel's house, and his family flees. Cooper's father insists that his son attend Klan meetings with him. The mounting racial tensions drive a wedge between the young people, but they struggle to look past them and remain loyal to one another. The Return of Gabriel is a suspenseful, compelling story of boys having to grapple with decisions that are well beyond their years. Their determination to keep their friendship intact despite all the pressures to end it will resonate with readers. An inspiring story set during the contentious Freedom Summer.–Edward Sullivan, White Pine School, TN (Reviewed December 1, 2002) (School Library Journal, vol 48, issue 12, p132)

Publishers Weekly Review: Armistead follows his strong first novel, The $66 Summer, about prejudice in the 1950s South, with an equally dramatic story set in 1964. The easy-going friendship between Cooper, a white 13-year-old, and his African-American neighbor, Jubal, is suddenly threatened when liberal-minded college students arrive from California, determined to bring change to Cooper's segregated Mississippi town. His loyalties split between his own family and Jubal's, Cooper finds himself in a precarious position, unable to please anyone. His membership in a "colored" church riles the anger of the white community. By following his father to KKK meetings, he arouses suspicions and resentment among African-Americans he has known all his life. Cooper puts himself in danger in order to save friends who have abandoned him, and his actions pay off when he prevents a church from being bombed. Political messages at times overpower character development, but readers will remain riveted as the action rises to a fever pitch. The star role Cooper plays in disbanding his town's newly formed white supremacy clan is inspiring, however, students familiar with American history may find the resolution to be more idealistic than realistic. Ages 8-13. (Oct.)
— Staff (Reviewed October 28, 2002) (Publishers Weekly, vol 249, issue 43, p71)
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
157131637X
1571316388
0613792025 : Glued Binding
0606293671 : DEMCO Turtleback - Juvenile
0756934605 : Glued Binding
Credits:

• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Added to NoveList: 20021120
• TID: 082175

If a bus could talk: the story of Rosa Parks
[written and illustrated by] Faith Ringgold
Author: Ringgold, Faith
A biography of the African American woman and civil rights worker whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus led to a boycott which lasted more than a year in Montgomery, Alabama.

New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young People, 1999, 1 v. (unpaged)

Kirkus Reviews Ringgold's biography of Rosa Parks packs substantial material into a few pages, but with a light touch, and with the ring of authenticity that gives her act of weary resistance all the respect it deserves. Narrating the book is the bus that Parks took that morning 45 years ago; it recounts the signal events in Parks's life to a young girl who boarded it to go to school. A decent amount of the material will probably be new to children, for Parks is so intimately associated with the Montgomery Bus Boycott that her work with the NAACP before the bus incident is often overlooked, as is her later role as a community activist in Detroit with Congressman John Conyers. Ringgold, through the bus, also informs readers of Parks's youth in rural Alabama, where Klansmen and nightriders struck fear into the lives of African-Americans. These experiences make her refusal to release her seat all the more courageous, for the consequences of resistance were not gentle. All the events are depicted in emotive naive artwork that underscores their truth; Ringgold delivers Parks's story without hyperbole, but rather as a life lived with pride, conviction, and consequence. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)
(Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 1999)
Other related features:

1. Picture Book Extender - The Other Side

2. Teaching with Fiction - An Eye on the Artist: Increasing Children's Visual Literacy Skills with an Illustrator Study
Author Web Sites:

1. Faith Ringgold's Web Site : Ringgold shares information about herself, her books, and works in progress..
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0689818920
0689856768 : Paperback - Juvenile
0613616332 : Prebind
0756914337 : Prebind
0606274790 : DEMCO Turtleback - Juvenile
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20030820
• TID: 119994

Voice that challenged a nation, The: Marian Anderson and the struggle for equal rights
by Russell Freedman
Author: Freedman, Russell
An account of the life of a talented and determined artist who left her mark on musical and social history is drawn from Anderson's own writings and other contemporary accounts.

New York: Clarion Books, c2004, 114 p.

Kirkus Reviews /* Starred Review */ She had played the major cities in Europe, appeared before filled-to-capacity halls throughout the US, and been welcomed at the White House, but famous contralto Marian Anderson was turned down by Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The Daughters of the American Revolution, headquartered there, stood by their "white artists only" policy and wouldn't let her perform. But officials at Howard University, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others who believed in equal rights teamed up to organize a free public performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. On Easter Sunday, 1939, Anderson performed before 75,000 people and a national radio audience in an event that sent "a powerful message of defiance against the injustice of bigotry and racial discrimination." Anderson never saw herself as an activist, though, and Freedman never treats her as a symbol. He offers instead a fully realized portrait of a musical artist and her times. Well-chosen, well-placed archival photographs, clear writing, abundant research seamlessly woven into the text, and careful documentation make an outstanding, handsome biography. Freedman at his best. (chapter notes, bibliography, discography, acknowledgments, picture credits, index) (Nonfiction. 9+)
(Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2004)
Other related features:

1. Awards (Best Fiction) - Children's -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> ALA Notable Children's Books -> 2005 -> Older Readers Category

2. Awards (Best Fiction) - Children's -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> Newbery Honor Books -> 2005

3. Awards (Best Fiction) - Children's -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> School Library Journal Best Books -> 2004

4. Awards (Best Fiction) - Easy -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> School Library Journal Best Books -> 2004
Author Web Sites:

1. About Russell Freedman : A biography of the author and selected reviews.
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0618159762
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20050120
• TID: 131183

Days of Jubilee: the end of slavery in the United States
Patricia C. & Fredrick L. McKissack
Author: McKissack, Pat, 1944-
Uses slave narratives, letters, diaries, military orders, and other documents to chronicle the various stages leading to the emancipation of slaves in the United States.

New York: Scholastic Press, 2003, viii, 134 p.

Kirkus Reviews The McKissacks (Miami Sees It Through, not reviewed, etc.) have written a much-needed overview of how slavery came to an end. Slavery in the US did not end on one officially recognized day, but gradually, at different times for different people. The Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863, only ended slavery in the Confederate states, thus could not be enforced, freeing no one and leaving close to a million people enslaved in the Border States. Yet, blacks, abolitionists, and politicians such as Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner cheered the document as "a promise of things to come." It included a clause that opened the army to African-Americans, who could now fight for their own liberation, a cause championed by Frederick Douglass. The Union army had become an army of liberation, and eventually black soldiers accounted for ten percent of the Union army and navy. December 18, 1865, was the true Day of Jubilee, the day the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery forever. The text effectively explains the political issues from the Missouri Compromise of 1820 through the Civil War and the Reconstruction era, Lincoln's evolution into "The Great Emancipator," the role played by Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists, and key events of the war itself. Excellent use is made of primary sources: slave narratives, diaries, and autobiographies, newspapers, documents, and archival photographs. Sidebars, song lyrics, and the inclusion of many players—major and minor—add to the nicely designed volume. Unfortunately, occasional small errors and awkward writing mar an otherwise fine offering, as do the lack of a map and the inclusion of a bibliography with few resources for young readers. Still: an important work and an essential purchase. (introduction, time line, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-13)
(Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2003)
Other related features:

1. Awards (Best Fiction) - Children's -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> Coretta Scott King Honor Books -> Authors category -> 2004

2. Awards (Best Fiction) - Young Adult -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> Coretta Scott King Honor Books -> Authors category -> 2004
Author Web Sites:

1. About Pat McKissack : Features a biography of the author and details on selected books.
Other Contributors:
McKissack, Fredrick, 1933-: joint author
ISBNs Associated with this Title:
059010764X
Credits:

• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Baker & Taylor
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20050320
• TID: 132633