Reviews

Call Me Miss Hamilton: One Woman's Case for Equality and Respect by Carole Boston Weatherford

southern_librarian's review against another edition

informative inspiring fast-paced

EpicFest 2023 illustrator. Miss Hamilton was an amazingly brave woman who made some major positive changes in our society. I'm so glad I now know more about her. The illustrations are mixed media - wood cut (I think - I'm not good at identifying types of illustration, to much shame) overlaid on actual historic photos. They're really cool and will cause you to pause on each spread.

k_pelowk's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

4.0

Simple biography of Miss Hamilton and an explanation of her case. Beautiful, complex illustrations. This book describes the contexts of racial violence and racist laws and law makers as a back ground to the story. Miss Hamilton’s work is described as her contribution to a generations-long collective struggle for justice. 
Eclectic and informative timeline included. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Police brutality, Violence, Racial slurs, and Racism

missprint_'s review against another edition

4.0

This was good. I did not know anything about Hamilton or her court case and this really broke the information down in a way that made sense for the picture book format while also being thorough and informative although I wish the text had more dates included.

I really hate the artwork. The juxtaposition between photographs and illustrations is chaotic. The scratch style (bio at back says scratch art on chalkboards) for the illustration are also not my favorite style. Intricate but I just don't like it personally. The design in general is a bit frenetic but it did add emphasis to key parts of the text which worked well.

Author's note, timeline, further reading, and captioned photos at the end

stenaros's review against another edition

3.0

It took a Supreme Court case to affirm that all people in court should be addressed by their honorifics. Thanks systemic racism. Here's the woman behind that story.

I enjoyed the scratchboard illustrations backed with photos. The story itself left me wondering about Miss Hamilton's life. The text mentions that she went to collage, but that information doesn't appear on the time line. It may be that they don't have that information, but even adding that a fact is unknown is helpful.

Read for Librarian Book Group

tcbueti's review against another edition

4.0

Concept of passing—she w have, relatives did, but she wouldn’t. Hard to imagine disrespect in court, except it isn’t. And she changed it.
Striking illustrations, but I was glad they had some photos, too.

stacyroth's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.75

<i>Call Me Miss Hamilton</i> is a children’s book about one of the lesser-known activists of the Civil Rights Movement, Mary Hamilton.  A Freedom Rider, Miss Hamilton was arrested multiple times.  In one Alabama court, the judge insisted on calling her by her first name, but she refused to answer unless she was addressed as Miss Hamilton.  When the judge charged her with contempt of court, she took her battle all the way to the Supreme Court. 

I had not heard of Mary Hamilton before seeing this book, and I am glad her story is getting told.  The downside to listening to a picture book as an audiobook is that you miss out on the photos and illustrations included in a physical book, but the audiobook was well read by Adenrele Ojo.  The audiobook also has background music to supplement the narrative.  Such a courageous woman!  I hope this book will make its way into elementary school classrooms while discussing the Civil Rights Movement, and that parents will read it with their children at home. 

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book. 

tmjunebug's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0