Richard Wright and the Library Card [Paperback]

William Miller (Author), Gregory Christie (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up

As a boy in the segregated South, author Richard Wright was determined to borrow books from the public library. His story vividly illustrates the power of determination in making a dream into reality.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Richard Wright, African American author of Black Boy and Native Son, grew up in the segregated South of the 1920s. His formal education ended after he completed the ninth grade, but gaining access to the public library with the help of a white coworker opened up a new world of books for him, eventually inspiring him to become a writer. Richard Wright and the Library Card is a fictionalized account of this powerful story, deftly adapted by William Miller from a scene in Black Boy.

Miller--a professor of African American literature and author of the critically acclaimed Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery, A House by the River, and Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree-- masterfully builds suspense, as readers wonder how the young African American will quench his thirst for books without being busted by the local white librarian. Wright's story is perfectly complemented by the work of Gregory Christie, winner of the 1997 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award for Palm of My Heart. (Ages 5 to 9) --This text refers to the School & Library Binding edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-5?In Memphis in the 1920s, public library borrowing privileges did not extend to blacks. Yet, 17-year-old Richard Wright's hunger to read inspires him to take a dangerous risk. He borrows the library card of a white co-worker and goes to the library with a forged note requesting permission to check out books for the man. The librarian treats him with suspicion, until Richard claims to be illiterate. This final act of self-deprecation elicits laughs from the librarian and other patrons. While the author's note acknowledges that this story is based on a scene from Wright's autobiography Black Boy, Miller takes significant liberties with the fictionalization. A comparison with the original shows that although the librarian questioned the note, she did not laugh at Richard. The harsh portrayal is reinforced through Christie's impressionistic illustrations done in acrylic and colored pencil. While this book is written in a straightforward, easily comprehensible manner, titles such as Marie Bradby's More Than Anything Else (Orchard, 1995) and Robert Coles's The Story of Ruby Bridges (Scholastic, 1995) describe a love of learning hindered by racism in a more inspiring way.?Jackie Hechtkopf, Talent House School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the School & Library Binding edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Lee & Low Books (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880000881
• ISBN-13: 978-1880000885
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #470,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How young Richard Wright got to read books from the library, April 13, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Richard Wright and the Library Card (Paperback)

Richard Wright is an African American author best known for his novel "Native Son" and his autobiographical work "Black Boy." In "Richard Wright and the Library Card" author William Miller fictionalizes a story from the latter work that tells of how Wright was inspired to become a writer. Growing up in the Mississippi of the segregated South of the 1920s, Wright was only allowed to go to school through the 9th grade. His mother had taught him to read by using the newspaper and Richard read everything he could find. At the age of 17 Wright traveled north to Memphis, where he got a job sweeping the floors and doing other jobs in the office of an optician. Wanting to check out books at the local library Wright is told he cannot do so because he is black. The only things he can read are old books and newspapers that he finds in the trash. But then, with the help of a white co-worker, Wright is able to come up with a strategy for circumventing the rules.

Miller takes some liberties with Wright's original description of these events in his life, but for the most part these changes simply reinforce the elements of the story; for example, the librarian is suspicious of Richard until he lies and says that he cannot read, at which point the librarian laughs. The detail is not in "Black Boy," but certainly having the librarian laugh reinforces both the irony and the injustice of Wright have to lie in order to gain access to books to read. For that matter the language in the story is made appropriate for young readers, who do not need to hear the epithets in use at the time to understand the prejudice Wright and other African-Americans faced in the segregated South. Miller also does a nice job of setting up the anticipation of young readers who, even if they know nothing of Wright's literary accomplishments, quickly realize that he is going to be able to get to read some books and have to wonder how he is going to do it and beat the oppressive system of segregation.

This volume has the advantage of wonderful impressionistic illustrations by Gregory Christie that pointedly capture the contrast between the face that young Richard shows to the suspicious white librarian, and the real face that comes alive when he is able to read books. This book is appropriate for young readers (Grades 2-5 in terms of interest level and Grades 2-3 for reading level) and emphasizes the wrongness of treating people as different in that Wright's co-worker, Jim Falk, is also considered an outside because he is Catholic, although clearly the Jim Crow laws are the implicit target of condemnation in this book. Wright considers every page of each book to be "a ticket to freedom," and when the young Richard leaves Memphis to go to Chicago and a new life, hopefully young readers will look forward to actually reading some of the important books that he wrote. But at this point the main benefit will be the sense of how things were different back then; I wonder how many young readers could look at the cover and the title of this book and guess correctly the story found inside.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Illustrates How Important Libraries Are!, March 3, 2008

By 

Lynn Ellingwood "The ESOL Teacher" (Webster, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Richard Wright and the Library Card (Paperback)

With all this obession over testing in school and phonics, researchers have repeatedly found that access to books and libraries are really the key to literacy for a people. Apparently segregationists understood this and tried to limit the accessibility of books to African-Americans in the South. William Miller's fictional account of Richard Wright's attempt to access a library and books illustrates how reading can change lives and help people to grow. Richard Wright grew into a writer and was able to use words and writing not because he learned phonics or took tests but because he had books to read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "BLACK BOY" beats the system !, April 10, 2005

By 

mcHaiku "nmi" (Brown County INDIANA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Richard Wright and the Library Card (Paperback)

Richard Wright grew up in the early 1930s . . . thinking that a library card was the TICKET TO FREEDOM. His mother used 'funny papers' to teach him to read but his formal education went only through 9th grade. A chance for a job took him to Memphis, Tennessee, and there he continued to yearn for books.

How difficult it is now to imagine not being allowed a library card because of race. Thousands of books, but only white folks could check them out! At work Richard finally approached one white man who was willing to loan his library card. Bending the truth a bit to use the card, young Richard found a new life spread out before him.

This 5 STAR story was drawn from an incident that Richard Wright wrote about in his famous 1945 autobiography. The books he read inspired his own talent. He worked with words all his life to express his beliefs in freedom and equality. Everyone MUST see the portrait of Wright on the cover of "HAIKU, This Other World" and be moved by that handsome face which reflects such great strength of character.

Libraries are more than symbols, and books are treasures that never stop 'giving back'. Parents & Teachers: Encourage children to tell about their first library experiences.

REVIEWER mcHAIKU believes fervently that their memories are also treasures.