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thenearestdream's review
4.0
It was a good book, it really was. The pacing was just very slow for me, and you can tell as it took me six months to finish it, as I constantly kept putting it down. I did enjoy it when I read it though.
stenaros's review
3.0
A big book, but it turns out that most of it's girth is due to pages that are mostly picture. Interspersed with history lessons is an interesting story of a white girl who witnesses Freedom Summer events in her own Mississippi town. A solid historical fiction read, if reader can get past the number of pages.
the_fabric_of_words's review
5.0
The second book Sixties Trilogy book is set during the Freedom Summer of 1964.
This tale is written in dual points of view (POV) -- from a young white girl, Sunny, which I felt was the book's strongest POV, and a Black teen boy, Raymond.
Sunny and her older brother, her step-mother's son, Gillette, sneak into the pool late one night. They think they're alone, until they're not -- and Sunny crashes in the dark against someone, a Black boy who's doing the exact same thing they're doing -- elicitly cooling down from the heat of summer -- but all she ever sees of him are his pristine, brand-new high tops.
Her screaming draws the local Deputy. The pool is for whites only. Sunny and Gillette promise to tell their father they snuck in and got caught. Of course, Sunny doesn't.
Raymond, the owner of the shoes, escapes and gets home without getting caught by the Deputy. He even convinces his mother he was swimming in the "river."
But now Sunny's on the lookout for those shoes.
Over the summer, volunteer activists with the Freedom Summer come to town and one, a young lady, stays in Raymond's home. She sleeps in his bed! They set up shop in a community center offering to register Black voters, who up to this point in Greenwood, Mississippi have been turned away at the courthouse under a myriad of Jim Crow laws.
It's here that Franny sister's story, from the first book, continues, as a Freedom Summer volunteer.
It's not long until President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law and tensions ramp up. Racist white restaurants and businesses become "members-only" clubs to exclude Blacks and yet again circumvent the new laws.
While the Freedom Summer volunteers encourage Black residents to register to vote and solidify the changes of the Civil Rights Act, doing so is more dangerous than ever.
The heat is as unrelenting as the prejudice. Fed up and wanting to exercise his rights, by law, to watch a movie and cool down in the heat, Raymond goes to the theater, where Sunny's cousin works the ticket counter, and up to this point was a racist whites-only theater. He buys a ticket but news that he's in the theater reaches racist whites in town, and they assemble outside the theater. They spark a riot and storm the theater, trying to capture him. The crowd is an ugly lynch mob. Sunny and her father smuggle Raymond out a back exit -- but the local sheriff arrests Raymond and jails him, nonetheless, even though he's done nothing illegal or wrong.
Tensions continue escalating, and I won't spoil how the story ends -- but know, Raymond pays a horrific price and nothing really changes in town.
Teaching Resources
This book is appreciably larger than the first. It begins with 40 pages of time-period specific material, photos, headlines, song lyrics, a map of the Mississippi Summer Project and more.
Non-fiction documents included throughout the story include: SNCC recruiting brochure text, biographical information about Bob Moses, text from KKK leaflets, interviews with residents about housing integration, the FBI's "Missing Persons" poster for the three activists (Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner) who disappeared and were later found murdered, FAQs about the Freedom School Curriculum, a short biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and more. Much more.
The text itself is daunting. It's thick, heavy and hard to hold. On an e-reader or in physical copy, I can see students overloading with all that's thrown at them. At the same time, it's excellent for building time-period specific knowledge of original documents. Strong readers in a class of 8th graders could tackle it for independent reading, as it's a bit below a high school reading level.
By today's (2021) standards, you'd need to dig into critically examining a white woman writing a Black child's POV, white privilege (personified in Sunny's character) and white savior complex in relation to the Freedom Summer movement, as well as the story's structure. And there's a lack of teaching resources to do this that makes it, at this point, an unlikely classroom read.
The free teaching resources provided by the publisher for this book were one set of 12 discussion questions.
Only three teaching resources are offered for the book at Teachers Pay Teachers and they range from $1 to $10.
There's also an article written by the author for School Library Journal in which she mentions the theme of this book and growing up white and privileged and learning to listen to Black characters and their stories and empathize with their struggles.
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
This tale is written in dual points of view (POV) -- from a young white girl, Sunny, which I felt was the book's strongest POV, and a Black teen boy, Raymond.
Sunny and her older brother, her step-mother's son, Gillette, sneak into the pool late one night. They think they're alone, until they're not -- and Sunny crashes in the dark against someone, a Black boy who's doing the exact same thing they're doing -- elicitly cooling down from the heat of summer -- but all she ever sees of him are his pristine, brand-new high tops.
Her screaming draws the local Deputy. The pool is for whites only. Sunny and Gillette promise to tell their father they snuck in and got caught. Of course, Sunny doesn't.
Raymond, the owner of the shoes, escapes and gets home without getting caught by the Deputy. He even convinces his mother he was swimming in the "river."
But now Sunny's on the lookout for those shoes.
Over the summer, volunteer activists with the Freedom Summer come to town and one, a young lady, stays in Raymond's home. She sleeps in his bed! They set up shop in a community center offering to register Black voters, who up to this point in Greenwood, Mississippi have been turned away at the courthouse under a myriad of Jim Crow laws.
It's here that Franny sister's story, from the first book, continues, as a Freedom Summer volunteer.
It's not long until President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law and tensions ramp up. Racist white restaurants and businesses become "members-only" clubs to exclude Blacks and yet again circumvent the new laws.
While the Freedom Summer volunteers encourage Black residents to register to vote and solidify the changes of the Civil Rights Act, doing so is more dangerous than ever.
The heat is as unrelenting as the prejudice. Fed up and wanting to exercise his rights, by law, to watch a movie and cool down in the heat, Raymond goes to the theater, where Sunny's cousin works the ticket counter, and up to this point was a racist whites-only theater. He buys a ticket but news that he's in the theater reaches racist whites in town, and they assemble outside the theater. They spark a riot and storm the theater, trying to capture him. The crowd is an ugly lynch mob. Sunny and her father smuggle Raymond out a back exit -- but the local sheriff arrests Raymond and jails him, nonetheless, even though he's done nothing illegal or wrong.
Tensions continue escalating, and I won't spoil how the story ends -- but know, Raymond pays a horrific price and nothing really changes in town.
Teaching Resources
This book is appreciably larger than the first. It begins with 40 pages of time-period specific material, photos, headlines, song lyrics, a map of the Mississippi Summer Project and more.
Non-fiction documents included throughout the story include: SNCC recruiting brochure text, biographical information about Bob Moses, text from KKK leaflets, interviews with residents about housing integration, the FBI's "Missing Persons" poster for the three activists (Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner) who disappeared and were later found murdered, FAQs about the Freedom School Curriculum, a short biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and more. Much more.
The text itself is daunting. It's thick, heavy and hard to hold. On an e-reader or in physical copy, I can see students overloading with all that's thrown at them. At the same time, it's excellent for building time-period specific knowledge of original documents. Strong readers in a class of 8th graders could tackle it for independent reading, as it's a bit below a high school reading level.
By today's (2021) standards, you'd need to dig into critically examining a white woman writing a Black child's POV, white privilege (personified in Sunny's character) and white savior complex in relation to the Freedom Summer movement, as well as the story's structure. And there's a lack of teaching resources to do this that makes it, at this point, an unlikely classroom read.
The free teaching resources provided by the publisher for this book were one set of 12 discussion questions.
Only three teaching resources are offered for the book at Teachers Pay Teachers and they range from $1 to $10.
There's also an article written by the author for School Library Journal in which she mentions the theme of this book and growing up white and privileged and learning to listen to Black characters and their stories and empathize with their struggles.
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
sharonfalduto's review
5.0
I thought this was a really well done book; a juvenile fiction set during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964, when many people--a lot of them students--came from all over the U.S. to help black people register to vote in the most segregated state in the nation. The main character is Sunny, a young girl who is coming to grips with a lot of things--a new step-family, how people of color are treated--and also sometimes has the p.o.v. of Raymond, a black child who starts his own freedom summer protests, such as going to the movie theater after the Civil Rights act is passed. The book is full of photographs from the Civil Rights movement, as well as some from Viet Nam, and information about all the transformational changes happening during the 1960s.
thecolorsofboredom's review
There's nothing wrong with us, I just don't want to read it. I need to stop buying middle grade books
azajacks's review
5.0
I support independent bookstores. You can use this link to find one near you: http://www.indiebound.org
s_hay's review
5.0
Great historical fiction based in Mississippi in 1964 during 'invasion summer.' Sunny has no idea that the 'invaders' coming are really people from the North who hope to get the African American citizens registered to vote and start a movement that grabs the attention of the nation.
The story line is interspersed with historical photos, speech quotes, music lyrics, and brochures to help give the feeling of greenwood Mississippi in 1964.
The story is told mostly from the prespective of Sunny, a 12 year old white girl, mixed with pieces from her 13 year old step brother and a 13 year old back boy.
This book looks really long, but there are lots of photos and other things mixed in making it a faster read than it appears to be.
The story line is interspersed with historical photos, speech quotes, music lyrics, and brochures to help give the feeling of greenwood Mississippi in 1964.
The story is told mostly from the prespective of Sunny, a 12 year old white girl, mixed with pieces from her 13 year old step brother and a 13 year old back boy.
This book looks really long, but there are lots of photos and other things mixed in making it a faster read than it appears to be.
cmw119's review
3.0
Though part of a trilogy you could read this by itself and not lose anything.
I preferred the first book. This one was too heavy. Don’t get me wrong, it had to be because it talks about serious subjects, but it wasn’t what I expected.
I can’t wait for the third book though to see how the trilogy ends.
I preferred the first book. This one was too heavy. Don’t get me wrong, it had to be because it talks about serious subjects, but it wasn’t what I expected.
I can’t wait for the third book though to see how the trilogy ends.
nerfherder86's review
5.0
I gulped this book down, but it brought me to tears twice and I had to just slow down and savor it. See my post on the first book in the trilogy [b:Countdown by Deborah Wiles] for why I like this "documentary novel" style so much. This second book connects nicely to the first with a crossover character, Jo Ellen, the big sister from book one who in this book is one of the Freedom Summer volunteers. But mostly it is another girl's story, another family, in the South instead of up north, along with an African American boy, Raymond, and it gets at the heart of race relations in 1964 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Very moving, very well written. Again, many terrific pages of photographs and quotes and lyrics for context, and biographies this time include Muhammed Ali, SNCC leader Bob Moses, and two incredible women I wish I'd known more about but am glad to meet in this book: Polly Spiegel Cowan and Dorothy Height. I'd read a fair bit about the civil rights era but hadn't heard of the Wednesday Women and I feel ashamed that I hadn't. Or hadn't remembered, anyway. Excellent excellent book.