Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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"If Rosa Parks can go to jail, then I can do it too
If Rosa Parks can go to jail, then I can do it too
Please everybody send my mail care of the old Montgomery jail
If Rosa Parks can go to jail, then I can do it too.

--a little ditty that, accompanied by my autoharp, I used to teach my preschool students to sing, often around MLK Day

It has always confused me how someone managed to take that excellent photograph of Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after her arrest for failing to give up her seat on the bus. After all, nobody knew that she, on that particular day, would be on a crowded bus, would be commanded to give up her seat by a bus driver who wanted to make room for an oncoming white passenger, and would be arrested and fingerprinted. But I've certainly seen that particular photograph in plenty of places, both in print and online.

Among the whole range of new things I learned about the Montgomery Bus Boycott from reading FREEDOM WALKERS was that the photo to which I am referring was actually taken when, months later, Ms. Parks gave herself up for arrest the second time, in this case for breaking "an obscure 1921 state law prohibiting boycotts 'without just cause or legal excuse.' " (A mass series of arrests on this charge, including Rosa's and Martin's, was one of the tactics employed by the city government that, in cahoots with the bus company, was trying to break the Boycott.)

So, for me, another history mystery was solved thanks to the meticulous work of Russell Freedman, a guy whose name has long been synonymous both with top quality research and with an ability to consistently craft children's informational books that read as compelling stories rather than compilations of facts.

I often worry about how the current trend of teaching to tests and NCLB mandates results in teachers needing to "cover" so many things that students are growing up oblivious to, or know only superficially of many important issues. As is said, "Where is the learning in coverage?"

It was just in the past couple of weeks that I was astounded to encounter an entire classroom full of eighth graders where not a single kid knew anything about Linda Brown and the historic court case to which she was central. How are students to learn to get along with each other and grow up to forge world peace if they don't even know the relatively recent history of intolerance in America?

Of course, most kids have at least heard of Rosa Parks -- whether or not they are fans of Andre 3000 and Big Boi -- as there have long been a selection of kid-friendly picture books that focus on this American icon.

FREEDOM WALKERS goes far beyond the basic knowledge contained in those picture books to provide an accurate and articulate look at the people, the times, the politics, and the constitutional law issues that surrounded the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We learn, in fact, that Rosa Parks was not the first woman of color to be arrested for failing to give up a bus seat and then considered for a test case. That's another fact most kids don't know. Not even I understood how ugly it got immediately in Montgomery after the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama's bus segregation laws were unconstitutional and the boycott ended victoriously. Talk about terrorism:

"The White Citizens Council had predicted violence, and sure enough, violence erupted before Christmas. Early on the morning of December 23, two days after the boycott ended, a shotgun blast was fired into King's home, scaring everyone but causing no injuries. On Christmas Eve, a car pulled up to a bus stop where a fifteen year-old black girl was standing alone. Four or five men jumped out, beat her, and drove away. Then shotgun snipers began to fire at integrated buses, sending a pregnant woman to the hospital with bullet wounds in both legs...
"In January, bombs were set off at four black churches in Montgomery and at the homes of three ministers -- Ralph Abernathy, Robert Graetz, and Martin Luther King. The Bell Street and Mount Olive Baptist Churches were almost completely destroyed, and all three houses were severely damaged. Miraculously, no one was hurt."

Some of the photos included in the book will be familiar to many. Others I have never laid eyes on before. An engaging read filled with intriguing facts and photos, FREEDOM WALKERS is the latest outstanding book by a true master of informational writing for young people.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com