Rosa Parks:
Meet a Civil Rights Hero
by
Edith Hope Fine
What an honor it was to write this five-chapter Rosa Parks
biography for second graders and up. My hope is that young
readers discover that Rosa Parks is much more than a single
incident on a Montgomery bus. Along with an inviting format
and lots of photos, the book includes a glossary, time line,
and resources.
Growing
up in a segregated society, Rosa picked cotton, went to
school with other black children, and drank from separate
drinking fountains. A bright child, she could read by the
time she was four years old. She grew up listening to the
stories of terrible things that happened to her fellow blacks
in the south. As an adult, Rosa had worked for justice and
fairness long before that key December day when she refused
to give up her bus seat to a white person.
Rosa
Parks considers herself an ordinary person, but she's known
the world around as someone who changed the course of history.
Today we call Rosa Parks the Mother of the Civil Rights
Movement.
Visit
these sites for more information about the remarkable Rosa
Parks:
Rosa
Parks: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
The
Life of Rosa Parks
Play
some games and learn more about the Amazing Rosa
Parks.
Reviews
Gr.
3-4. The struggle for civil rights is the story here. Far
from the myth of the tired, innocent seamstress, this clear
biography in the Meeting Famous People series shows that
Parks was a longtime political activist. Her grandparents
had been slaves, and she grew up under segregation. But
she was secretary of the NAACP in Montgomery, and in 1945,
despite obstacles and after four tries, she was registered
to vote. The climactic 1955 confrontation when she quietly
refused to give up her bus seat to a white man is electrifying,
and Fine explains how the action led to the organizing of
the Montgomery bus boycott, which helped start the civil
rights movement. The short, clear text and the spacious
design, with big type and lots of pictures of segregation
and protest, make this a fine introduction to the person
and the political history.
-Hazel Rochman, Booklist, February 2004
