This book is 108 pages.
Grades: 4-8
Curriculum Links: Social Studies
Author Credibility: Russell Freedman has written over three dozen nonfiction books. He researches topics and people that he is interested in and wants to learn more about. For this book, he researched information about the Civil Rights Movement and ended up learning about people he had never even heard of. He wanted to include those people in this book.
Awards: 2007 Orbis Pictus Honor Book; 2007 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award
Summary:
This book is about the obstacles that African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama faced in order to have the freedoms and rights they deserved. Rosa Park’s refusal to give up her seat on a bus paved the way to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. African Americans walked, carpooled, and shared rides during this time to get around the city. This boycott was led by Martin Luther King who encouraged peaceful protests rather than the use of violence. The events discussed in this book lead to the Supreme Court ruling that Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional.
Standards: Time, Continuity, and Change; Individuals, Groups, and Institutions; Civic Ideals and Practices
Illustrations: The illustrations are black and white photographs from a variety of sources that document the events and important people in the book.
Access Features: Table of contents, map of Montgomery Alabama, chapter notes, bibliography
Classroom Use: This book could be used during a study of the Civil Rights Movement and during Black History Month in February.
Response: I really enjoyed reading this book, because I learned a lot about the challenges African Americans faced during this time. I also learned about people that contributed a lot to the Civil Rights Movement that I had never heard of. I liked the way this book was written, because it was organized chronologically.
Related Texts:
If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks by Faith Ringgold
Rosa by Nikki Giovanni
In Defense of Liberty by Russell Freedman
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges
1 comment:
The title of this book would make a great title for a movie or documentary. I'm a big Russell Freedman fan, having read two of his books. They both dealt with children in poverty. I plan to read more. This looks like a great one to read.
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