WE'VE GOT A JOB: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March

WE'VE GOT A JOB: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March, by Cynthia Levinson (Peachtree 2012)(10+).  In early May of 1963, thousands of Birmingham schoolchildren took part in a massive campaign to violate the city's segregation laws and thereby flood the city's jails. Over the course of some ten days, more than 4,000 children were arrested, andor had fire hoses and police dogs set upon them.  This is the story of four of them.

In WE'VE GOT A JOB, Levinson provides a perspective on the civil rights movement as a whole, as well as focusing on what it meant to four very different individuals.  With exceptional research including personal interviews with many of the parties involved, Levinson brings to life an inspiring moment of history of children empowered and determined to take on the system.

CROW

CROW, by Barbara Wright (Random House 2012)(ages 8-12).  It's Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898, and Moses Thomas has just finished fifth grade with perfect attendance.  His father works at the daily African American newspaper and is one of four African American aldermen on the city council.

His grandmother and mother were born into slavery.  But Moses's father knows that so long as Moses has an education and self-respect, he can grow up to make something of himself.

Although Moses has fun that summer (he gets to take his first train ride and starts to teach Boo Nanny how to read), there are ominous signs -- he has issues with his friends and tensions between the white and African American communities begin to rise...

CROW is a fascinating and poignant story of one boy's summer in the time leading up to the Wilmington Massacre of 1898.  Thought-provoking, but not preachy, CROW pulls no punches as it remains true to the era yet always maintains the perspective of an eleven-year-old.  Altogether, it's a compelling read with an engaging and likeable protagonist.       

TRUTH WITH A CAPITAL T

TRUTH WITH A CAPITAL T, by Bethany Hegedus (Delacorte 2010)(ages 8-12). Eleven year-old Maebelle T. is excited to be spending the summer with her musician grandparents in their newly-inherited antebellum mansion. But it turns out her newly-adopted cousin Isaac from Chicago, the trumpet prodigy, is going to be spending the summer there, too.

Worse, Maebelle has been dropped from the Gifted and Talented program at her school. Can she find her talent in time for the town's anniversary celebration and return to Atlanta at summer's end? And what's with the deal with the mansion's locked wing?

TRUTH WITH A CAPITAL T is an enjoyable, honest, and thought-provoking story of friendship, history, and family secrets. Told with humor and full of Southern charm and wit, TRUTH WITH THE CAPITAL T will have readers wanting to march right down to Tweedle, Gerogia in time for the festivities.

ONE CRAZY SUMMER

ONE CRAZY SUMMER, by Rita Williams-Garcia (Harper Amistad 2010)(ages 9-12). In the summer of 1968, eleven-year-old Delphine lives in Brooklyn with her father and grandmother and two younger sisters, Vonetta (9) and Fern (7).

Delphine is the responsible one: organized and polite and always getting her sisters to behave, even if she can't stop all their fights before they begin.

And when thier father decides the girls are to spend a month out in Oakland, with their mother Cecile, who walked out on them years before, Delphine will be put to the test. Cecile's not like ordinary mothers: she never hugs and she never lets any of the girls into the kitchen. All their meals are at the Black Panther community center or Chinese take-out. Worse, Cecile seems to hate their being there or the fact that the girls exist at all.

Can Delphine keep her even keel while everything and everyone around her seems to be going crazy?

ONE CRAZY SUMMER is insightful, poignant, disturbing, and, occasionally, funny. Williams-Garcia does an outstanding job of framing the turbulent era, while at the same time keeping the focus on, and the perspective of, Delphine herself. More than a period piece, ONE CRAZY SUMMER is, ultimately, an affecting and illuminating story of family and responsibility.

JUMPED

JUMPED, by Rita Williams-Garcia (Harper Teen 2009)(14+). Williams-Garcia presents a day in the life of three girls in an inner city high school: belligerent, basketball jock Dominique; flirtatious, outgoing, and clueless Trina; and cell-phone addict Leticia. When Leticia overhears Dominique swearing to "kick [Trina's] ass" after school that day (a threat to which Trina is oblivious), Leticia must decide whether, and to what extent, to get involved: should she help, warn her, or just stay out of the way?

Told alternatingly by each of the three girls, JUMPED is a compelling and sometimes disturbing novel of choices and randomness; Williams-Garcia brilliantly lays out the potentially chilling consequences of stark differences in outlook and viewpoint.