54. Dear America: The Diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson: With the Right of Angels; Hadley, Virginia, 1954 by Andrea Davis Pinkney

read by Channie Waites, on cd, in the car
6 unabridged cds  (6:37)
2011 Scholastic
336 pgs.
Middle grades Historical Fiction
Finished 9/1/17
Goodreads rating:4.05 - 646 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting:   Hadley, Virginia 1954

First line/s:  "It's early, before the sun even knows she's got sleep in her eyes."

My comments:  Take a seat front and center to learn about the beginning of integration/desegregation in Virginia in 1954.  I listened to this wonderful, inspired story which was incredibly enhanced by the reading of Channie Waites.  Although the Dear America series is not ABOUT real people, I've got to guess they're based on real people, particularly in this case.  Fascinating, disgruntling, ridiculous, unbelievable - the idea that people should be divided because of the color of their skin.  My granddaughter listened to the first two discs with me and was mesmerized.  I'm positive she never had a clue about segregation.  This was an outstanding story, taking the reader inside the head of a young African-American girl who had to break those difficult, scary, almost-impossible boundaries set up by white people throughout history in our country.   Highly recommended.

Goodreads synopsis:  Coretta Scott King winner Andrea Davis Pinkney brings her talents to a brand-new Dear America diary about the Civil Rights Movement.
          In the fall of 1955, twelve-year-old Dawn Rae Johnson's life turns upside down. After the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Dawnie learns she will be attending a previously all-white school. She's the only one of her friends to go to this new school and to leave the comfort of all that is familiar to face great uncertainty in the school year ahead.
          However, not everyone supports integration and much of the town is outraged at the decision. Dawnie must endure the harsh realities of racism firsthand, while continuing to work hard to get a good education and prove she deserves the opportunity. But the backlash against Dawnie's attendance of an all-white school is more than she's prepared for. When her father loses his job as a result, and her little brother is constantly bullied, Dawnie has to wonder if it's worth it. In time, Dawnie learns that the true meaning of justice comes from remaining faithful to the integrity within oneself.

Busing Brewster - Richard Michelson

Illustrated by R. G. Roth
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
$16.99
24 pgs.
Rating: 5 (Yup, this is a good one)
Endpapers: covered with stick-like figures playing on a school playground (pale, pale sage green)

Set in the 1970's, when schools were segretated and busing students far across town was used to begin to desegrate the schools. Brewster and his slightly-older brother Bryan are not as excited as their mom when they discover that they will be bused to a previously-all-white school, having to get up an hour earlier in the morning to go the distance. And when they get there, they are greeted by protestors, rocks being thrown, and nasty white classmates. Before school even begins on the first day, the brothers are put into detention in the library with "freckle-face", a white kid who'd heckled them and precipitated them getting caught arguing.

Well. By the time they leave the library they've made friends with the librarian (who then initiantes Brewster into the wonderful world of books and reading) and also with Freckle-face. When they leave school, however, a friendly wave goodbye to their new friend is ignored, because he's being picked up by his father, who is saying something derogatory about the desegreation - so young readers can see where the bigotry and hatred are coming from, and how it keeps gathering speed.

Great history lesson for kids - my kids - who, luckily, have no clue about the bigotry and racism so prevalent in the 60s and 70s. I only wish I could say it's gone....but it has to be better than it was. The Author's Note at the end gives additional information on the history and background of the story.

The illustrations are great. It's somewhat difficult to describe them. Cut paper. Sponged stencils. Tiny, tiny repetetive patterns. Pale watercolor-brushed lines. I'm only guessing at all this, but I love the mixed media look. The colors are muted, lots of grays and muddied greens, mustards, clays.

Great book. The more I think about it the more I like it. Storytelling in a positive way. Great protagonist. Kids doing real things, especially at the playground. Super illustrations. Yippee!