2017 reviews BB booksDay of Tears
On March 2 and 3, 1859, the largest auction of slaves in American history
took place in Savannah, Georgia. More than 400 slaves were sold. This novel in dialogue follows the story of several of the people significant to that “Day of
Tears.”
The Voice That
Challenged a Nation…
This insightful account of the great African American vocalist considers her life and musical career in the context of the history of civil rights in this country.
Drawing on Anderson's own writings and other contemporay accounts, Russell
Freedman shows readers a singer pursuing her art despite the social
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Hush
Evie Thomas is not who she used to be. Once she had a best friend, a happy
home… Once her name was Toswiah. Now, everything is different. Her family has been forced to move to a new place
and change their identities. Her once lively father has become depressed and quiet. Her mother… clings to a new-
found religion. Her only sister is making secret plans to leave… Evie wonders
who she is.
Trouble Don't Last
Eleven-year-old Samuel was born as Master Hackler’s slave… until, with no warning, cranky old Harrison, a fellow slave, pulls Samuel from his bed and,
together, they run…. Samuel’s not sure what freedom means aside from running,
hiding, and starving. But as they move from one refuge to the next on the
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Black Angels
Eleven-year-old Celli has discovered black angels that no one else can see. And Sophie, part of the family despite her color, has become an outspoken advocate for equal rights… Celli feels more embarrassed by Sophie's strident
presence in town than supportive of the movement, until her long-lost
grandmother from Ohio pays a visit and reveals a secret that will change the way
Celli looks at life, color, and family.
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The Skin I’m In
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The Lions of Little Rock
As twelve-year-old Marlee starts middle school in 1958 Little Rock, it feels like her whole world is falling apart. Until
she meets Liz, the new girl at school…. But when Liz leaves school without even
a good-bye, the rumor is that Liz was caught passing for white. Marlee decides that doesn't matter. She just wants her friend back. This decision will change
Marlee’s life forever.
My Cry
Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their
integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story—Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having
land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity
and self-respect.
One Crazy Summer
In the summer of 1968, 11-year-old Delphine and her younger sisters
Vonetta and Fern are sent to get to know their mother, Cecile, who walked out on them just after Fern was born. Turns out she doesn’t want to get to know them. This is the story of three sisters’ adventures in the summer of
1968, adventures that help them learn what it means to be strong women of
color in a changing world.
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Brown Girl Dreaming
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares
what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights
movement.
Harlem Summer
It's 1925 and Mark Purvis is a 16-yr-old with a summer to kill. He'd rather jam with his jazz band but is urged by his parents to get a job. As an assistant at
The Crisis, a magazine for the "new Negro," Mark rubs shoulders with
Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. Uncertain about the future he wants,
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Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary *
With incisive, precise prose, Myers tells of Malcolm's childhood, which was
greatly influenced by his father, a disciple of Marcus Garvey; his life as a youth on the streets of Harlem and Boston, where
he was convicted of burglary; his self- education while imprisoned for more than six years; his crucial role in and
eventual split from the Nation of Islam; and his pilgrimage to Mecca, which inspired his Organization of Afro-
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Buckminster Boy
It only takes a few hours for Turner Buckminster to start hating Phippsburg,
Maine. No one in town will let him forget that he's a minister's son, even if
he doesn't act like one. But then he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a smart and
sassy girl from a poor nearby island community founded by former slaves.
Despite his father's-and the town's- disapproval of their friendship, Turner
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A Lesson Before Dying *
Set in a small Cajun community of the late 1940s, the story is narrated by local schoolteacher, Grant Wiggins, who is
persuaded to visit a young man in prison as he awaits execution for a murder he didn’t commit. Wiggins seems to be a
reluctant hero; his anger and frustration glow white hot beneath every word. The
novel’s spare prose and lack of embellishment make it quietly
devastating.
Till **
In 1955 people all over the United States knew that Emmett Louis Till was a
fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a
white woman in Mississippi. In a profound and chilling poem, award-
winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose fate helped spark the
civil rights movement.
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* These books (Macolm X… and A Lesson Before Dying) may not be the Butler Bookshelf worksheet book. Most reviews are taking word-for-word from Amazon’s book reviews. One Crazy Summer, is based on the New York Times review; Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary quotes a Publisher’s Weekly review; A Lesson Before Dying is taken from the Irish Times.
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