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Summary
Summary
A portrait of the 1960 civil rights sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, as seen through the eyes of a young Southern black girl.
Author Notes
Carole Boston Weatherford lives in High Point, North Carolina.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's 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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) Two new picture books set in the civil rights-, protest-era South: one is romanticized idealism, the other child's-eye-view realism. Johnson's A Sweet Smell of Roses is a poetic evocation of a 1960s freedom march. The young black narrator and her little sister dash out of the house one morning and join a march led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout the day -- listening to speeches, marching, enduring harassment from onlookers -- they smell roses. Then, singing freedom songs, the two skip home. The pervasive smell of roses is an effective metaphor for the scent of freedom in the air, and Johnson's poetic text is powerful. But in attempting to reflect a universal experience, the story becomes too generic, and the girls' blithely unchaperoned participation undercuts the tension and danger of the actual events. Velasquez's red-accented pencil illustrations capture the sweep and emotion of the march, although the girls' central role (they march in the front row with Dr. King) feels artificial. Much more successful is Weatherford's Freedom on the Menu, an account of the 1960 sit-ins at the segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, from the perspective of eight-year-old Connie. The text -- full of detail and lively dialogue -- moves along smartly, taking readers from the first protests to the eventual integration of the lunch counter. Connie, unlike her older siblings, is mostly an observer, but the author manages to hold true to her experience without sacrificing content or veracity. Humor occasionally lightens the mood, as when, after Brother has announced that he's joining the sit-ins, and Sister that she intends to picket downtown, Connie says, ""I want to go, too.... I'm plenty big enough to hold a sign, and I know I can sit."" Readers will cheer when Connie, so long denied a banana split at the lunch counter, is finally served one with ""an extra cherry on a mound of whipped cream."" Lagarrigue's somber, impressionistic oils lend the story dignity and weight. [Review covers these titles: A Sweet Smell of Roses and Freedom on the Menu.] (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
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 Copyright 2005 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4-Connie 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
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+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
