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Summary
Summary
Explore a little-known story of the civil rights movement, in which black and white citizens in one Alabama city worked together nonviolently to end segregation.
Mention the civil rights era in Alabama, and most people recall images of terrible violence. But something different was happening in Huntsville. For the citizens of that city, creativity, courage, and cooperation were the keys to working together to integrate their city and schools in peace. In an engaging celebration of this lesser-known chapter in American and African-American history, author Hester Bass and illustrator E. B. Lewis show children how racial discrimination, bullying, and unfairness can be faced successfully with perseverance and ingenuity.
Author Notes
Hester Bass is the author of the picture-book biography The Secret World of Walter Anderson , which won an Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, as well as the picture book So Many Houses, illustrated by Alik Arzoumanian. Formerly residing in Huntsville, Alabama, she now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
E. B. Lewis is the illustrator of more than thirty books for children, including The Secret World of Walter Anderson by Hester Bass. Among his many honors are a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Talkin' About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by Nikki Grimes, as well as four Coretta Scott King Honor Awards. He lives in Folsom, New Jersey.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Starred Review. A small girl sits on a chair in a store, solemnly holding a piece of paper with the outlines of her feet drawn on it. This is how African Americans shopped for shoes in Huntsville, Ala., prior to the civil rights movement, because their feet weren't allowed inside shoes that might be touched by whites. It's one of many indelible vignettes in this engrossing and heart-wrenching history from the duo behind The Secret World of Walter Anderson, which culminates in Huntsville's schools being the first to integrate in the state. Bass's forthright, passionate prose and Lewis's searing, expansively imagined watercolors take readers to a time and place when the New Frontier's rockets (Huntsville was a NASA field center) heralded American exceptionalism and pride, while bigotry and discrimination were justified as "just the way it is." As Bass and Lewis show, once the "seeds of freedom" took root, there was no turning back; when ordinary people were willing to speak truth to power and risk everything for justice, they changed the world. Unflinchingly honest and jubilantly hopeful, this is nonfiction storytelling at its best. Ages 5-8. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In this welcome story of nonviolent protests in early 1960s Jim Crowera South, black residents of Huntsville, Alabama, organize Blue Jean Sunday--a boycott of shops that sold traditional expensive Easter outfits; students plan a sit-in at a lunch counter; schools are integrated through persistence and peaceful methods. Bright watercolors backdrop the relevant, calmly told story. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* This picture book opens by telling of life in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1962, during the Jim Crow era. While the city takes pride in its world-renowned space center, a black family cannot eat in a whites-only restaurant. Not allowed to try on shoes, a black child draws the outline of her feet on a piece of paper and takes it to the store. When African Americans push for change, they meet resistance. But they persevere. Working with leaders in the white community, they gradually, peacefully break down barriers, gaining equal access to stores, restaurants, and, in 1963, public schools. In an appended note, Bass offers more local details as well as a broader perspective. The use of present tense gives a great sense of immediacy to the text as it transports readers into the past to watch events unfold. The relatively peaceful changes in Huntsville are briefly contrasted with the violence in Birmingham around the same time. Capturing the period with finesse, Lewis' expressive watercolor paintings record the events and settings in beautifully composed scenes. His portrayal of people is particularly fine, conveying the personalities, attitudes, and emotions of individuals as well as the essential dignity of the nonviolent protesters. A valuable introduction to the civil rights period.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2015 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-5-This gentle, reflective book shares a story of the civil rights movement, one that is perhaps less known but no less powerful than many others. Huntsville, AL, was considered a space center, with NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and a few supporting satellite companies in the area, and the call for change that was sweeping through the South followed a slightly different path in this town. Bass shares how African Americans looking for change pursued many of the same avenues that were used throughout the country including boycotts and sit-ins. But unlike the violent clashes that occurred in other communities between white residents and protestors, the people of Huntsville were a bit more reluctant to use violence. Many white citizens relied on the space industry for their income, and to antagonize the federal government could mean the loss of jobs and a weakening of the local economy, and thus, a more peaceful transition to desegregation and more equal treatments happened in Huntsville than in many other places. Lewis's trademark watercolor paintings pair perfectly with this lyrical recounting of events, and he masterfully moves between detailed illustrations depicting faces of grim determination of lunch counter patrons to the more impressionistic scenes of protesters facing water hoses. The book covers quite a bit of ground, both in time and content and can be long for a read-aloud, but it's well worth the time to share such a moving, inspirational story.-Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Peaceful but forceful protest ended segregation in one Southern town.The titular "seeds" are a metaphor for individual acts of nonviolence that led to desegregation in the city that is home to the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, a federally funded facility. In the early 1960s, blacks staged sit-ins at lunch counters, listened to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and, before Easter, boycotted local clothing stores and participated in a Blue Jean Sunday. Bass writes in the present tense with a conversational tone and divides her story by date from July 1962 through September 1963. She includes details that will resonate with children while also imparting an inspirational message, tinged with her own civic pride (she is a former resident of Huntsville), about community activism. Lewis' watercolor art portrays street scenes and townspeople's faces. His full-page portrait of a little black girl in ruffled white ankle socks, holding a paper outline of her feet, is the most telling and poignant. She wants a new pair of shoes but cannot try them on. It's an unfortunately timely book, as Huntsville is still in the news with court cases challenging de facto school segregation. A book that is as quietly inspiring as its subject. (author's note, photographs, selected bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
