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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Sharenow, R. 2007 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Acts of courage come in all shapes and sizes. In the tumultuous New Orleans of 1960, thirteen-year-old Louise Collins finds her world turned upside down when a stranger from the North arrives at her mother's boarding-house. Louise's mother spends her mornings at the local elementary school with a group of women know as the Cheerleaders, who harass the school's first black student, six-year-old Ruby Bridges, as she enters the building. One day a Chevy Bel Air with a New York license plate pulls up, and out steps Morgan Miller, a man whose mysterious past is eclipsed by his intellect and open-manner-qualities that enchant mother and daughter alike. For the first time, Louise feels as if someone cares what she thinks, even if she doesn't know what she believes. But when the reason for Morgan's visit is called into question, everything Louise thinks she knows about her mother, her world, and herself will change.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8-10-This powerfully written first novel is a coming-of-age story framed by a historical event. Thirteen-year-old Louise thinks that her life simply couldn't be any more boring. The year is 1960, and her mother has yanked her out of school because an African-American child, Ruby Bridges, has been enrolled in first grade. So Louise has nothing to do except tons of chores in her mother's run-down New Orleans boardinghouse, while Pauline drinks herself into a stupor every afternoon. She spends her mornings with the "Cheerleaders," the local women who gather to heckle Ruby and shout racial epithets at her as she enters the school. One day, a handsome man steps out of a late-model Chevy Bel Air and rents a room. Louise and her mother are both intrigued, and eventually learn that Morgan Miller, who has supposedly come down from New York to visit family, has ties to The Daily Worker. Through conversations with Morgan and firsthand observations, Louise begins to wonder about the morality of the Cheerleaders' activities. After Pauline is a victim of rape and several tragic episodes play out, the woman does something unexpected, and Louise starts to look at her from a different point of view. To most young readers, 1960 is nearly ancient history, yet the prejudice that Louise views in the Ninth Ward is still part of life today, albeit better hidden.-Susan Riley, Mount Kisco Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in 1960, Sharenow's debut novel begins just after the Supreme Court ruled segregation unconstitutional and Ruby Bridges became the first black student to attend William J. Frantz Elementary in New Orleans's Ninth Ward. Louise Collins is an overworked, 13-year-old loner who helps her alcoholic mother run a Ninth Ward rooming house, Rooms on Desire. After her mother pulls her out of school to protest integration, Louise has more time to assist with the boarders. (Louise notes that "my first reaction to the news that William Frantz was to be integrated was to wonder why the Negro kids wanted to go to such a crummy school.") Additionally, Louise's mother joins The Cheerleaders, a group of women who line up at the entrance of the school every morning and verbally harass first-grader Ruby, screaming racial epithets and even threatening her life. Into this tumultuous environment comes Morgan Miller, an attractive, educated book editor who resides in New York City but was raised in New Orleans. Miller has come to make peace with his brother, but he stirs up romantic feelings in both Louise and her mother and gets them to slowly reconsider the racial attitudes they've heretofore accepted. Through inquisitive Louise's perspective, readers get a wrenching look at the era's turmoil and pervasive racism. As secrets about Louise's family are revealed and Miller's attitudes attract the attention of local Klan members, teens should remain riveted right through the devastating conclusion to Sharenow's promising work of historical fiction. Ages 12-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
In 1960 New Orleans, thirteen-year-old Louise's mother pulls her out of school in protest when Ruby Bridges enrolls and desegregation begins. Louise, emulating her FBI heroes, spends her days spying on a visitor from up north. The violence she witnesses introduces her to new attitudes about courage, independence, and justice. Sharenow's thought-provoking depiction of a moral awakening is wrenchingly honest. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In 1960s New Orleans, 13-year-old Louise recounts the events that led to her mother Pauline's withdrawal from the "Cheerleaders," a group of mothers who gathered each morning outside of William Franz Elementary School to protest integration by heckling Ruby Bridges, the first African-American girl to attend the school. The change in Pauline is prompted by a visitor to her inn, a Jewish man named Morgan with whom she forms an instant connection, and by the community's violent reaction to his presence. Shortly after Morgan's arrival, Louise witnesses her mother being raped by her former friends as punishment for associating with him and learns that these men plan to lynch Morgan as well. After this night of violence, Morgan's car is found burned out and abandoned; Pauline never again joins the Cheerleaders in front of the school; and Louise tries to accept her mother's inaction as sufficiently redemptive. This story provides an unflinching look at the violence and hatred that permeated this period of history. However, the characters are rather two-dimensional, and the narrative lacks the emotional and psychological depth necessary to fully engage. (author's note) (Historical fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
"*Starred Review* When her mother pulls Louise, 13, out of class to protest the forced court-ordered integration of her school in New Orleans in 1960, Louise never gives the political issues a thought. Everyone knows segregation is the way things are. Sure, she does feel bad that first-grader Ruby Bridges has to endure the vicious racist insults from the white crowds outside the school every morning. Louise's mother, Pauline, is one of those jeering Cheerleaders. Then New York editor Morgan Miller comes to stay in Pauline's run-down boardinghouse, and his quiet outrage makes Louise begin to raise doubts and questions. But he is a Jew and he may be a Communist, and the Klan goes after him. There is some plot contrivance as Louise acts as sleuth and eavesdrops on the grown-ups. But stirring secrets drive the plot, about Louise's family and about Morgan's, and Pauline turns out to be more than just a vain southern belle; even her politics change, a little. In his debut novel, television producer Sharenow challenges the view that those cheerleaders shouting the n-word were just a few crazy freaks. Readers will be held fast by the history told from the inside as adult Louise remembers the vicious role of ordinary people. For younger children, suggest Ruby Bridges' Through My Eyes (1999) and Ruth Vander Zee's Mississippi Morning (2004)."--"Rochman, Hazel" Copyright 2007 Booklist