Brandy ColbertReseñas
Autor de Little & Lion
Reseñas
Alberta has two dads and her birth mom comes to visit. This is woven into the story nicely. It's part of who Alberta is, but it's not the focus of the story.
Edie's parents are going through a divorce, which is the reason she moves with her mom from Brooklyn to California. This is also well integrated into the story.
Laramie is maturing faster than Edie (she gets her first period early in the book). It's understandable why Laramie would want to be friends with a popular older girl, even though the older girl is a bully.
There is a whole big subplot about a 1950s diary that Edie and Alberta read and investigate. This injects some history and mystery into the book. There are parallels between Constance the diarist and Alberta feeling isolated and different.
I was a little disappointed that Alberta was so perfect. Her only flaw is that she always orders the same ice cream. At the end of the book, when she
CW: Dealing with grief, racial inequality
An important book about the responsibilities of being a citizen in our world. Understanding the issues and exercising our right to vote becomes more and more important as time passes given that some of the global economic and environmental problems are escalating rapidly. This entertaining book tackles quite a few issues alongside the importance of voting. I enjoyed Marva and Duke's relationship and oddly it felt like it developed carefully and with consideration even though the book took place over one day. An important and enjoyable book.
The attack on the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, that began on May 31, 1921, was triggered in part by a mob of Whites seeking to punish an African American teenager for allegedly assaulting a White woman. However, this exploration shows that the violence that destroyed the thriving community known as Black Wall Street was part of a long history of brutality and displacement. In addition to describing the event itself and the subsequent active suppression of information about it, Colbert provides important context for the founding of Tulsa, as Muscogee (Creek) people who were forcibly removed from their land by the U.S. government settled there in 1833. The end of Reconstruction saw paroxysms of violence and the rise in discriminatory laws against African Americans, and many sought sanctuary in Indian Territory. By weaving together many elements, this sophisticated volume makes clear that the destruction of Black property and lives in the Tulsa Race Massacre was not an isolated incident. Beginning with the author’s personal foreword and continuing throughout the detailed narrative, readers are guided to see the complex, interconnected nature of history. The clear, readable prose supports a greater understanding both of how and why incidents like the one in Tulsa happened and their exclusion from curriculum and conversations about U.S. history.
A compelling recounting that invites and encourages readers to grapple with difficult history. (afterword, bibliography, sources, index) (Nonfiction. 14-18)
-Kirkus Review
As an adult it reads as sweet, silly, and sort of preachy.
The Publisher Says: This definitive biography of Rosa Parks accessibly examines her six decades of activism, challenging young readers perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement.
Presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks as the quiet seamstress performed a single act that sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and birthed the modern civil rights movement, Jeanne Theoharis provides a revealing window into Parks' politics and decades of activism. She shows readers how the movement radically sought--for more than a half a century--to expose and eradicate the American racial-caste system in jobs, schools, public services, and criminal justice and how Rosa Parks was a key player throughout. The original text is fully adapted by the award-winning young adult author Brandy Colbert, for middle-grade and young adult readers to include archival images and personal papers of Rosa Parks, and to provide the necessary historical context to bring the multi-faceted, decades long civil rights movement to life. Colbert creates an engaging and comprehensive narrative centered on Parks' life of activism, to encourage readers not only to question where and who their history comes, but to search for histories beyond the dominant narratives.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU. CONTENT WARNING FOR RAPE.
My Review: Author Theoharis's 2014 Image Award-winning adult biography of civil rights icon Rosa Parks has been adapted for younger readers! Brandy Colbert's work for YA audiences has been on Los Angeles Public Library's Best YA Fiction lists, and has won a Stonewall Book Award in 2010. Between these two powerful writers, the project couldn't have been in better hands.
The story of Mrs. Parks's lifetime of struggle against the racial prejudice she was subjected to routinely, and the sexism that all women were subjected to while she was growing up, makes for sobering reading. The fact that both of these issues remain prominent in 2022's US national conversations does not speak well of our ability, as a body politic, to learn from our errors and omissions of thinking.
One of the city’s first responses to the boycott was to portray the problem as the actions of a handful of “bad apple” bus drivers. Officials insisted the problem was not segregation but rude drivers. City leaders said they wished the Black community had approached them sooner with the problem so they could have disciplined these drivers. Of course, this wasn’t true at all. Black people had been highlighting bus segregation that entire year and even before then, and each time, they’d been ignored. But this way, the city was able to blame the issue on a few bad people rather than a rotten system.
Lie, cheat, obfuscate...then lie some more. After all, it doesn't matter if you tell lies when you're Right.
The major issues that Mrs. Parks drew attention to are still present in US society. It really bids fair to wrap one's soul in a fog of despair, sixty-seven years after this brave woman made a stand against being treated as less than, other than, another person simply because of her skin color, and we're facing the same issues over and over again.
Some issues are treated with respect but then others are completely glossed over. The job does a good job of dealing with bipolar symptoms. There is talk of suicide but it is handled well and again informative. And I appreciated a scene where microaggressions are called out--that was completely informative. But then others--six kinds of tequila can appear at a party and jello shots are passed around with no consequences or questions. The teens are sexually active, but they seem to be going through the motions. The main character is working out her own gender/sexuality, but she felt a bit jaded already by the whole thing.
I read this because this book was tagged for banning in Texas schools. I decided to read a number of books on the list because I hate the idea of banning any books and loathe the idea that librarians and educators are not qualified to know which books should be available for teens.
Theo is an talented African-American ballet dancer, but when her childhood best friend returns home after being kidnapped years ago, it brings bad memories back to the surface. Trigger warning for sexual abuse and an eating disorder.
The local mean girl starts to hang out with Laramie, Alberta's best friend. Her meanness has racial undertones but a lot of other white folks don't see it.
Exploration of friendships, race, and family.
Well written, compelling, larger print on the page.
The Only Black Girls in Town reads like an older middle grade/younger YA book. Al and her friends are entering the seventh grade and as such they’re at a point in their life where they are searching for their own identities. This comes in several shades, including the way they present themselves to the world and the people they spend their time with. While Alberta is technically our protagonist, we get the see different stories in her two best friends, Laramie and Edie. There is so much representation in this book on small levels, the types of things that normally are forgotten. It was really nice to see the variety of lived experiences between the three girls, let alone everyone else in the story.
While I would say that the bulk of the novel deals with Al and friends’ experiences growing up in their small town community, the subplot surrounding Constance also tells us an important truth. In some ways, it reminded me of this book I liked when I was growing up, Paperquake, in that it involves finding mysterious journals and such in an old house. But that is where the similarities end – Constance’s story exists to cast a light in how recently segregation was a part of daily American life – less on “how far we have come” and more on “we still have so far to go”.
I also enjoyed Constance’s story because it shows how even though Al always thought she was an “only”, there are so many people out there who are part of the community. The Only Black Girls in Town addresses experiences for those of mixed race – both historically and in modernity. While I am not qualified to declare it was done well since I am not Black or of mixed race, I can say that as an outsider, I was really nice to see.
The Only Black Girls in Town is an easy recommendation. It’s a mix of contemporary struggles and a historically rooted mystery and as such keeps the reader engaged and rooting for Al and her friends. I haven’t discussed the gay couple, artist commune living, and holistic pregnancy, but all of that is really nice to see as well. The entire book is accessible to its reader base and never feels childish, the way some middle grade novels do. The Only Black Girls in Town very much needs to be available to students in school libraries – this is the type of book that represents many different people in many different ways and it is an excellent read.
Growing up, I learned a whitewashed version of history and knew very little about Rosa Parks other than her refusal to give up her seat on the bus. After reading The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, I have a much greater admiration and appreciation for this remarkable woman. Her strength, her demeanor, her love of reading, her spiritual life, her pursuit of justice and equality. All of it inspired me. I’d love to read Mrs. Parks’ books, My Story (autobiography) and Quiet Strength. I imagine those books tell even more of her story as The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks focuses on her experiences with segregation, racism, and activism.
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks: Young Readers Edition is marketed for 7th-9th graders/ages 12-17. However, I learned much from this book as an adult and the writing is not simplified, though I suspect some situations may be less detailed than in the original edition. I felt that Jeanne Theoharis presented the information in this book objectively, except for perhaps a few parts near the end. I recommend this book to ages 12+ and I expect that we will use it as a resource in our homeschool program once my daughters reach middle school. Excellent book.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product via the Amazon Vine program. All opinions in this review are my own.
Read the recently published works of nonfiction for youth, then learn more at the website.
BLACK BIRDS IN THE SKY by Brandy Colbert shares the story and legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Emphasis is placed on the larger history of violence against African Americans as well as the Native Peoples who came before them. Of particularly note is the focus on active suppression of information about the event and how it connects to broader discussions of systemic racism.
THE BURNING by Tim Madigan was recently adapted for young people by Hilary Beard. In addition to an account of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the book explores the larger historical context along with a discussion of the need for social justice.
The TULSA RACE MASSACRE is an interactive article from The New York Times. Using maps, historical photos, and the stories of individuals, the project explores the prosperous Black community known as America’s Black Wall Street and the tremendous loss of life and property street-by-street. By telling the story of the individual people and places, readers become immersed in the time and place of the massacre.
To explore the interactive, go to https://nyti.ms/3k8l1J4.
ARC courtesy of Henry Holt and Harper Collins.
I really enjoyed this one -- I was up until almost 1am last night because I had to find out how it ended. Gut wrenching, but beautiful.
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street. Though Edie and Alberta don't have much in common, their shared experience as Black girls, and a mystery
surrounding the journals found in Edie's attic, brings them together. This book bravely takes on conversations of
race and racism, with a cast of dynamic characters and a plethora of nontraditional family structures.