Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement

Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement. By Ann Bausum. National Geographic Society, 2006.  79 pages.  $18.95

"Captured in the pages of this book is a compelling moment in human history, the drama of the Freedom Rides, the most untold story of the civil rights movement.  This is a true account of courageous Americans who were prepared to dis for what they believed."  So says civil rights leader John Lewis in his forward to Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement, a Robert F. Sibert Honor book.  This fascinating book begins with an examination of the era preceding the civil rights movement from both the African American and white perspective by detailing the childhoods of the Lewis and Zwerg.  It goes on to show how these two men, one black and the other white, became leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's through their participation in the Freedom Rides, in which activists from different parts of the country rode buses into the Deep South to confront racial injustice.  Adhering firmly to their non-violent principles, they nevertheless faced great dangers as they attempted to bring the message of equality for all into the most segregated parts of the United States.

The passages about Lewis's childhood are especially moving.  Growing up in the heart of the Jim Crow era, Lewis was confronted daily with his "otherness": the sense that he was trapped in a society in which he could never be accepted.  He talks about his anger and his shame at having to attend segregated schools with no playgrounds, no indoor plumbing, and hand-me-down books.  These early experiences were the forge in which Lewis developed the strength to confront injustice; he became one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement as a very young man, and, as a congressman from the state of Georgia, he continues to fight for equal rights for all people to this very day.

Zwerg, by contrast, "might as well have been born into another world." He had very little interaction with other races growing up, but his parents taught him respect for all people, regardless of their differences.  In college, Zwerg was a natural leader, and when the Civil Rights Movement began to gain momentum his deep sense of right and wrong compelled him to act.

John Lewis and others confront police on Bloody Sunday

Retrieved from https://c1.staticflickr.com/2/1697/23854979734_8f8582ed45_b.jpg

The two men would go on to face all manner of prejudice side-by-side.  They were confronted by angry mobs armed with baseball and hammers; they heard the most hateful of racial epithets; and they mourned when some of their fellow protesters we're killed by bigots.  But they also witnessed and participated in some of the pivotal moments in this nation's history, and in the end, heroes like Lewis and Zwerg persevered and helped to bring about lasting change and a greater degree of equality for all Americans.  This book is a reminder that a few a determined individuals can make a difference in the face of great injustice.  It is also a reminder that we have a responsibility to do so.

Highly Recommended: Award-Winning Books

Click on the thumbnail below to view my presentation on award-winning children's and young adult books:

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book. By Neil Gaiman. Illustrated by Dave McKean. Harper Collins, 2008.  312 pages.  $11.99

Introduction to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.."  So begins the strange and thrilling tale of Nobody Owens, better known as Bod.  When his parents are murdered while he is still an infant, the remarkable Bod somehow manages to escape... to a graveyard.

There, young Bod comes under the protection of the graveyard's residents (some of whom have been dead for more than one thousand years!), who decide to adopt Bod and raise him as their own.  Bod's upbringing is overseen by the mysterious Silas, who arranges to for Bod to learn not only his ABCs, but the shadowy ways of the dead as well.

Bod meets many strange beings, from ghouls and witches to night-gaunts, Sleers, and Hounds of God.  Some of these creatures mean him well, while others mean him harm, but Bod always seems to escape from danger in the nick of time.  But there are things in Bod's background that even he does not know about, and dangers are lurking, waiting for their chance to pounce.

This action-packed book is enlivened by the stylized illustrations of Dave McKean.
Illustrations from The Graveyard Book (Gaiman, 2008)

Now that you've read my introduction, you can view my read-aloud from Chapter 1 here:

The Holocaust: Further Reading for Number the Stars

If you need help on your research project, or just want to learn more about this fascinating and horrifying period in history, come by the library and check out our display.

     

Number the Stars

Number the Stars. By Lois Lowry. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1989. 137 pages. $11.00

"'Halte!' the soldier ordered in a stern voice...'Why are you running?'"  Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend, Ellen, were just two young girls racing each other to the corner.  They did not realize that their lives were about to change forever.

Lois Lowry's Number the Stars is set in Copenhagen, Denmark, shortly after it was occupied by Hitler's Nazis during WWII.  Before the German invasion, Annemarie and her friends and family had known only peace and happiness, but now they were faced with daily specter of soldiers in the streets, with their shining black boots and their rifles slung over their shoulders.  Still, they do their best to carry on with a normal life.  But one day, they learn that the Nazis are rounding up all the Jews in Copenhagen for "relocation"... and Annemarie's best friend, Ellen, is Jewish.

Annemarie and her family make a commitment to help Denmark's Jews escape a terrible fate, but they do so only  at great danger to themselves.  As the Nazis close in on Ellen and her family, the Johansens involve themselves in a desperate plan to save them.  If they are caught, they could all be arrested.  Or worse.

Lowry's fast-paced story races along to a dramatic climax.  Will Ellen and her family escape to safety?  Will Annemarie and the Johansens be able to avoid detection?  This book will keep you in suspense right up to the end.  In the process, you will see examples of great courage and boundless compassion.  This book is ultimately a reminder that we are indeed each others' keepers, and that we have a duty to our fellow men and women, regardless of whether we share the same faith or the same ethnicity.  Although this is not a true story, it was inspired by the very real heroism of the Danish people, who were able to save most of their country's Jews from the horrible fate the befell the Jews of almost every other country in Europe.  This is a memorable and inspiring book that will appeal to a wide range of readers.

Maya's Children: The Story of La Llorona

Maya's Children: The Story of La Lloronoa. By Rudolfo Anaya. Hyperion Press, 1997. 32 pages. $25.95

View the link to my read-aloud here:

Read aloud of Rudolfo Anaya's "Maya's Children: The Story of La Llorona"

I Am a Taxi

I Am a Taxi.  By Deborah Ellis. Groundwood Books, 2006. 208 pages. $8.12

Sometimes, school can feel like jail, but imagine spending your childhood in a real prison!  That’s precisely what happens to twelve-year-old Diego in Deborah Ellis’ book, I Am a Taxi.  After both of his parents are wrongfully convicted of a crime they did not commit, Diego and his three-year-old sister Corina are sent to live in a Bolivian women’s prison with their mother.  Unlike the prisoners, however, children like to Diego are allowed to leave the prison during the day, only to return at night.  With this limited freedom, Diego becomes a “taxi”: he earns small amounts of money running errands for the other prisoners, sending messages, buying food and other goods, and so forth.  Diego is also allowed to go back and forth between the women’s and men’s prisons, which allows him some contact with his father. The money Diego earns helps his parents to pay for their own food and the rent the government makes them pay for their prison cells; without his contributions, the family would be forced to sleep on the ground and go without food.  In this strange new world, Diego is forced to grow up fast and learn to take care of himself.  While these events sound remarkable, they are based on actual conditions in the real-life prisons of Bolivia.

Smart and resourceful, Diego adapts amazingly well to his new life.  He makes good money and earns the trust of the adult prisoners.  But one day, Diego is lured into a trap that will separate him from his family and threaten his very life.  Drawn by the prospect of making serious money, money that could help his family, Diego and his best friend Mando are tricked into joining up with a group of “cocaleros”: cocaine producers and traffickers who live outside the law.  Diego and Mando soon find themselves deep in the heart of the Bolivian jungle, kept prisoner and forced to work like slaves in the production of the dangerous drug.  Diego and Mando endure hardships and tragedies together, wondering if they will ever see their families again.

Ellis’ fast-paced, action-packed book shows the difficulties faced by children from other societies, perhaps reminding us that we may have more to be thankful for than we sometimes realize.  Like Diego, children who experience such traumas miss out on many of the normal experiences of childhood; even the repetitive routine of school and homework would seem like a relief to them compared to what they must tolerate on a daily basis.  This is a story about a boy who must become a man before his time, whether he is ready or not.  As you read this book, you will grow to admire Diego for his strength and his smarts.  Ellis’ book, by turns harrowing and inspiring, is one that you won’t soon forget.

A Child's Anthology of Poetry

A Child's Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Elizabeth Hauge Sword. HarperCollins 1995. 323 pages. $19.37

Children’s poetry books usually fall into one of two categories: either they are filled with poems that so are juvenile and silly that they lack real meaning, or they contain poems that are so complex that young people are unable to appreciate them.  Editor Elizabeth Hauge Sword’s A Child’s Anthology of Poetry strikes the perfect balance between these two extremes. The beauty of this book is that it speaks to children, without talking down to them. Filled to the brim with the work of such “serious” poets as Maya Angelou, William Blake, Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson, to name only a few, the poems are so well-chosen that readers of all ages will find much to enjoy here.  Of course, the book also includes the work of authors who write specifically for children, household names like Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky, among others. 

The poems in this collection range far and wide, from the humorous doggerel of Ogden Nash’s “Experiment Degustatory,” to the somber “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” of Dylan Thomas, to the nonsense verse of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” to Poe’s classic narrative of horror, “The Raven,” there truly is something here for everyone. 

The collection also includes a wide range of poetic forms and styles to inspire the young poet.  Here you will find the haiku of Basho, the narrative poetry of Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman” or Longfellow’s “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”, the experimental forms of E.E. Cummings, and the deceptive simplicity of William Carlos Williams.  In essence, this book exposes young readers and writers to the entire world of possibilities that exists within the genre of poetry, and it is a collection that they will never outgrow.

Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask

Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask; A Bilingual Cuento. By Xavier Garza. Cinco Punto Press, 2005. 40 pages. $14.29

Illustration from Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask (Garza, 2005)

View the link to my read-aloud here:

Read aloud of "Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask"