Story of the Civil Rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Photographs

Aretha, David.  Story of the Civil Rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Photographs.    Enslow  2014  48p   $17.95  ISBN 978-0-7660-4238-4  ms/hs  series: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement in Photographs  Nonfiction  E-BNS

This brief book describes the events leading up to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and what happened on that day.  The book begins with the planning of the event and notes previous attempts at peaceful reform.  Specific stories about some of the people who journeyed to the march highlight its significance. Subsequent chapters provide a chronicle of the march itself, including the speeches, the goals and its results. Succinct text boxes provide additional relevant information.  Most significant, however, are the photographs, which serve as primary-source material.  Each photograph enhances the accompanying text, clarifying and highlighting the information.  Additional text boxes provide summaries and relevance of the selected photographs.
    

Additionally, the information given is concise and accurate.  This short book about the first effective and notable civil-rights march on Washington relays information in an orderly and historically precise manner.  To add to the credibility of the well-written text, there are first-person accounts by participants in the march.  The graphics are visually appealing and are remarkably reflective of the text and photographs.
    

Through the use of photographs of primary documents and authentic quotes from participants, David Aretha has created a book that focuses on the most important events surrounding the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.  The inclusion of a table of contents, timeline, pages of suggestions for further reading, and an index also make this an excellent resource tool.

This is one book in the series The Story of the Civil Rights Movement in Photographs. Other titles in this series include The Story of the Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and The Story of the Selma Voting Rights Marches.   

Summary: This book describes the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and chronicles the events of that day and the effects the march had on the nation.      

Civil Rights Movement                           --Virginia McGarvey

Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Photographs

Aretha, David.  Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Photographs.  Enslow  2014  48p   $17.95  ISBN 978-0-7660-4234-6  elem/ms  series: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement in Photographs  Nonfiction  VG

Rosa Parks stood up for her civil rights by sitting down.  This book chronicles the now-famous tale of how a tired black woman refused to vacate her seat on the public bus for a white man, thus sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott and creating an important rallying point for the nascent Civil Rights Movement.  Aretha provides clear, if slightly biased, explanations of the onset of racial segregation and how Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders fought injustice through nonviolent protest.  The text does not shy away from the negative as well as the positive outcomes of these protests.

This slender volume is bursting with information, and the very readable text is further enhanced by interesting sidebars and many photographs from the era.  The book would be a good springboard for launching a discussion of civil rights, African-American role models, and strong female role models.  The book will appeal to student researchers and history buffs, as well as casual readers.     

Summary: This book describes the role Rosa Parks played in battling for equal rights during the Civil Rights Movement. 

Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Movement                     --Hilary Welliver

Paint Me A Monster

Baskin, Janie.  Paint Me A Monster.  Enslow     2014  352p  $18.95  ISBN 978-1-62324-018-9  hs  Historical fiction  VG-BN

Belonging to a seemingly picture-perfect family, Rinnie (nicknamed after the dog Rin Tin Tin in the movies) has always been the odd one out. She asks awkward questions, blurts out family secrets at inopportune times, and always seems to be the family scapegoat. Her family punishes her by yelling at her, ignoring her, and sending her away to camp. Neglected and unloved, Rinnie punishes herself by restricting her diet until she is skeletal (the family's skeleton in the closet?).

The reader will immediately understand that while Rinnie appears to be an average child of an upper middle-class family, she is an outcast.  She makes mistakes common to childhood (but uncommon in her family, where appearances take precedence over substance).  As a very young child, Rinnie stole a small charm from the department store.  She told the rabbi who came for dinner about the family's Christmas tree.  She doesn't enjoy summer camp or shopping for clothes.  Rinnie just doesn't fit in.

Rinnie tries to reinvent herself in order to receive the love and attention she craves.  She renames herself Rinnie, for the dog Rin Tin Tin, who is loved by all and is the symbol of universal approval.  Rinnie (whose true name eventually is completely forgotten by everyone who knows her) climbs the slippery slope of popularity, eventually becoming a cheerleader (generally the pinnacle of teen society).  But it is to no avail.  Rinnie's parents divorce.  Her father takes her brother with him to become part of his new happy family, and she and her sister are left to cope with their mother, who is on a downward spiral of alcoholism, mental illness, and messy relationships with a series of men and marriages. Her sister escapes through schoolwork and trips abroad.  She knows how dreadful her mother has become, and yet she abandons her younger sibling to save herself.

Rinnie and her mother clash.  Rinnie is helpless to save her mother from self-destruction and desperate to win any sign of approval from the parent left to her.  As her mother sinks further and further into depression, she lashes out with increasing viciousness at Rinnie.  In an era when mental illness went largely untreated and was politely ignored, Rinnie becomes the caretaker of the person who should be taking care of her.  Held to impossible standards, Rinnie retreats into anorexia.  No one in her family circle seems to notice as Rinnie turns into a walking skeleton.

With the help of a school guidance counselor, Rinnie develops a support system and is gently drawn back from the brink of self-destruction. The road to complete recovery will be long, but Rinnie is armed with acute self-perception, and the reader comes away from the novel with the feeling that hers will be a successful journey.

Summary: With the help of the school guidance counselor, Rinnie comes to terms with her dysfunctional family relationships and her battle with eating disorders. 

                 

Anorexia-Fiction, Divorce-Fiction               --Hilary Welliver

What We Did for Love.

Farrant, Natasha.  What We Did for Love.  Enslow  2014  208p  $17.95  ISBN 978-1-62324-028-8  hs/adult      Historical fiction     VG-BN

What We Did For Love is based on a true story about a little village in France where the Nazis ordered the whole village into the town square and massacred everyone.  This is a fictional romance that takes place in the months and days leading up to the massacre.  Arianne and Luc are teenagers in love, and unbeknownst to Arianne, Luc has been doing some work for the Resistance.  The day he tells her he is going to join a group of Resistance fighters and leave, there is a huge train explosion, and his name is implicated.  The Nazis come looking for him, and the rest is brutally violent and unfortunately, it really happened.

The book may take a second reading, even by the most sophisticated of readers.  It appears that characters are being introduced willy nilly, and it is a little bit hard to keep track of them in the first part of the book.  Later they come into play more, and things fall into place, but there were moments of confusion for this reader.  The Afterword explains what really happened in the village of Oradour sur Glane in June 1944, and it is possibly that this should have appeared at the beginning of the book.  However, even with its faults, this is a gripping read that teaches yet another aspect of World War 2 from the point of view of a young French girl.             

Summary: Based on a true story about a little village in France where the Nazis ordered the whole village into the town square and massacred everyone.  This is a fictional romance story that takes place in the months and days leading up to the massacre.  

World War II-Fiction, French Resistance-Fiction --Carol Kennedy