Grandmama's Pride

I loved this book and have read it to children with very good effect. What most impressed me was the tight, circling structure. It could have ended about half way through and been a good book. But the sisters, after visitng their grandmama in the south and experiencing Jim Crow segregation, go back north. The older sister learns to read, starts to figure things out, and then they come south again. The older sister sees the wisdom of her elders' response to segregation and joins them to protect her younger sister. They revisit the same places--the segregated fountain, bathroom, the lunchcounter--but now with this new insight. I love when children's books have that parallel structure. The art work is great, the prose poetic, the story and characters with great univeral appeal.

A little girl and her family go South to visit her grandma. When she gets there, things are not like at home. Black people and white people are treated differently. She sees "Colored" and "White Only" signs. She didn't like it. Things change when she went to visit her grandma again the next summer. Everyone could use the same bathroom, water fountain and waiting room. I liked it because it taught me more about black and white people and the way things used to be. Reviewed by: Jada Monet, 7-years old