Freedom+Summer

__ Freedom Summer __ Written By: Julia Deborah Wiles, Illustrated by: Jerome Lagarrigue **Book Review By**: Lori Donovan

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// Freedom Summer // Author: Deborah Wiles Reading Level: Grades 1-3 Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001 Language: English ISBN: 978-0689878299 Format: Hardcover, $16.00 Pages: 32

__Summary__: //Freedom Summer// is a historical picture book that depicts how children felt going through “Freedom Summer,” a time of intense racial tension as African-American rights were being put into action in the 1960s. This is a story of two boys, Joe and John who are best friends but different races. Because John is African-American, he cannot go to the public pool, the store to buy ice pops, or even certain drinking fountains like Joe can. One day Joe’s parents say that African Americans are going to be allowed to go into stores and do everything that white people can do. Joe runs to tell John and they make plans to go the public pool. Excited, the boys run to the pool and find that the people are going on strike now that African Americans are allowed in the pool. They hired workers to fill in the pool with tar so no one could swim. John, crushed that he cannot swim because of his color, tells Joe how sad this makes him. Joe gets up and asks if John wants to get and ice pop. They stand in the front of the store and walk in together as friends for the first time ever and the story ends.

__ Book Review __ : This historical picture book is very informational and intense. It has a serious feel that allows readers to see the perspective of the African American children who were told that they could not do what white children could do. Using relatable characters, children can find themselves in the boys who do what they do: swimming in pools, eating ice pops, and playing with marbles. Readers draw parallels to these experiences and become invested in the exclusion John had to experience. Taking a very complex topic such as segregation and racial factors and compacting it into an insightful piece for children is no easy task. This is a text that all children need to be introduced as it is a fluid and insightful piece on the emotions of children experiencing racism.

__ About The Author __ : Deborah Wiles was born in 1953 in Mobile, Alabama. Her higher education was at Jones County Jr. College in Ellisville, Mississippi and later at Vermont College in 2003 where she earned a Masters of Fine Arts in writing. She has written a total of two picture books: //Freedom Summer// and //One Wide Sky//, as well as five novels. The inspiration for her books are her summers in Mississippi and her life as an Air Force child. She has become a very established author and regularly visits schools. Deborah Wiles was awarded the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award in 2002 and the Coretta Scott King Award for //Freedom Summer//.

__Literary Element Analysis__: The themes in //Freedom Summer// are highly developed and sophisticated, which makes this book phenomenal. The theme of friendship, carried throughout this text is a point where students can relate to their own friendships. For example, Joe says on the last page, “then we walk through the front door together” this is a point of solidarity, and promotes the motif that friends stay together especially through tough times. Students can relate to this experience of standing together to their own experiences regardless of their race or reading level is. In addition a powerful theme of the division of equality is also very prominent throughout the text: “white folks don’t want colored folks in their pool”… “'You’re wrong, John Henry', I say but I know he’s right”. It is through the powerful language and vocabulary such as “I know he’s right” that Wiles captures the pain of segregation through the eyes of a child. //Freedom Summer// offers a different lens to the struggles of racial intolerance through the development powerful themes in such a way that student’s readers can understand, learn, and think about inequality in their own lives.

__ Related Links __ : http://deborahwiles.com/site/ [] http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-summer