Customer Reviews

Child of the Civil Rights Movement (Junior Library Guild Selection)

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Paula Young Shelton has written a wonderful book explaining the reason for the Civil Rights Movement. This is something that children and adults under 50 often do not understand. Thankfully, our era is different, but we need to appreciate why the change happened. It is also touching that families were engaged in the movement. It gives history a humanity that is seldom conveyed.

The beautiful illustrations make this a great book to read aloud to any age.

Paula Young Shelton has written an authentic and instructive memoir of her family's participation in the Civil Rights Movement. Divided into meaningful moments, both illustration and text work together perfectly to paint a picture children will understand. Particularly effective are her explanations of Jim Crow Laws and "The Civil Rights Family." The collaboration of Young Shelton and Colon is a real success. As a librarian, I look forward to sharing this picture book with groups of all ages.

This is a perfect book for parents and children to read together about the experience of being a child of a civil rights leader. I loved the image of Dr. King in his bathing suit playing with children at the YMCA pool. We get a behind-the-scenes picture of him as a family man and appreciate that his dreams for our nation were far more than rhetoric. Modern parents will marvel at how the movement was organized around the kitchen table. This book is destined to become a conversation piece for all families who want to understand our history.

Told from the perspective of young Paula Shelton whose father, Andrew Young, was one of the civil rights leaders in the Civil Rights movement, this is a well-written book filled with wonderful anecdotes about life during those hard times. Paula was a very young child when her family, who had been residing in New York, decided to move back to Georgia to actively participate in the fledgling Civil Rights movement.

Seeing this movement from a child's perspective is enlightening - young Paula, just 4 years old, thinks Jim Crow is a mean old crow that prevents black people from sitting where they want. It is only later that she realizes he was a racist who made fun of African Americans like Paula. She recounts her experiences with racism and segregation when her family is turned away from a Holiday Inn restaurant which serves only white customers. She describes family dinners where famous names from the civil rights movement gathered to discuss their next steps - names like Randolph Blackwell, Hosea Williams, Andrew Young (Paula's father), James Orange, Ralph Abernathy, Dorothy Cotton, Jean Childs Young (Paula's mother), and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Together they form a "family" unit that collaborate to strive for social justice and equality - and this includes of course the famous march from Selma to Montgomery, and culminates in President Johnson's signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This is truly an inspiring read and by using the perspective of a young child, it makes it easier for young readers to engage with the story. An inspiring read and a must-have for any school and home library.

My seven year old and I have read Child of the Civil Rights Movement together many times and just the other day when my 77 year old father came to visit, I handed him the book and he wanted to take it with him. I've already ordered another one.

In this book, Martin Luther King is first, a playful uncle at the Ollie Street pool, ready to toss his niece in the water. The Civil Rights Movement is channeled through a family in the midst of the struggle. Not just any family, Andrew Young's family and they have voluntarily given up their New York ease to return to the South to help. They argue in symphony and eat macaroni and cheese. The reader feels wrapped up in time and in spite of the battle, warm in the grasp of an extended loving family that together strive and work for what is right, for the rights that belong to all human beings. The story is so wonderful and not just because it is about a victory that we all know, but underlying the story is another truth. Together, families, neighbors, people make the burden light when they carry the weight collectively.

Child of the Civil Rights Movement travels from New York, to Atlanta, Selma to Montgomery, and made this reader nostalgic for the greens, the sweet tea, the old neighborhood, the power and passion of the movement and finally too, even grandmother's house. When togetherness was simply a way of life, from house to house there was always a welcome, and often, a meal.

The illustrations are lush and warm. You'll want to read this book again and again. Your children will ask you questions each time and you'll want to answer them.

Paula Young Shelton has written a beautiful book for children & families on the civil rights movement. It is unique because it comes from the perspective of a child who experienced it. Shelton is the daughter of Andrew Young. Parents & grandparents can share with children their own experiences after Shelton explains that she "thought Jim Crow was a big black crow that squawked whenever a black person tried to get a good seat." She introduces us to the civil rights family with Uncle Martin & Aunt Coretta who weren't family by blood, but "Close because our fathers worked together. Close because our mothers worried together. Close because we all struggled together." A four year old Shelton even walked a little in the Selma to Montgomery march, before being carried by her mother and then "passed from aunt to uncle to aunt." Shelton was too young to think about voting rights, but not too young to be proud when she saw Uncle Martin with President Johnson on TV as he signed the bill so everyone could vote. This story & its wonderful illustrations will keep any child engaged as they learn their country's history.

Great story of the civil rights movement by one who was there---the daughter of Andrew Young, Dr. King's 'niece' --- from the perspective of a young girl. A significant contribution to any child's historical appreciation for American freedom!

What was it like to grow up in the South when Jim Crow laws were everywhere? The author is a daughter of civil rights leader Andrew Young, and Raul Colon follows her family experiences and memories in this lively account, a perfect addition to any library strong in civil rights history and experiences.

Paula has written a great book for both children and adults to read. She has shared powerful memories of her experience growing up during a crucial time in African American history. I highly recommend this book for anyone who would be willing to take a journey through some of the major events of the Civil Rights Movement and see it through the eyes of a little girl. The pictures are vivid and bright. The language is simple and real. Having grown up during this period in time, this book serves as a reminder that each generation has to carry the torch for freedom and equality. It is not an option, but a responsibility. I appreciate this book and look forward to reading more from Paula.

Little Paula was from New York where Jim Crow didn't live, but when her family "saw something called the Freedom Riders" on the news it was time to head back to their Southern roots. More people were needed and the Young family quickly packed to join in and help the protesters. Of course Paula thought that Jim Crow was a big old crow that lived in Georgia. When any black person got on the bus and grabbed a decent seat it would say "CAWWW. CAWWW, you can't sit there!" That really wasn't the case, but little girls think literally at times. What he really was, was a mean old white man who made fun of African Americans.

Her Daddy, Andrew Young, and her Mama Jean "decided to see how far things had really come." After church they went to a new Holiday Inn. There were many empty seats, but would they be allowed in. No, no, no. Andrea was hungry and plopped down on the floor and began to wail. Her own protest was allowed to continue, but to no avail. Her aunts and uncles would continue her protest, but would they succeed? Randolph Blackwell, Hosea Williams, James Orange, Ralph Abernathy, Dorothy Cotton, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others were all there as a "family." Would a family be able to succeed where the individual had failed?

This is the type of book that is so impressive it actually made the hair stand up on my arms by the time I reached the end. Told from the point of view of a young child, Paula Young Shelton, who actually experienced the joys, the heartbreak and the violence of the civil rights movement through her own and "extended" family it made it all the more poignant. As a young child she knew most of the activists as aunts and uncles, but they were truly family in every sense of the word. The illustrations were stunning and contributed greatly to this brief historical overview of the civil rights movement. This stunning book is one you should seriously consider adding to your homeschool or library shelves!