"Freedom School, Yes!"

Author: Amy Littlesugar

Illustrator: Floyd Cooper

Awards:

Ages: Kindergarten- 4th Grade

Pineapple Points: 4/5

🍍🍍🍍🍍

Summary:

        A fictional story about the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project, that created three Freedom Schools in highly Anglo dominated state. The schools educated African Americans of all ages and created opportunities that they otherwise would not have had. This particular story tells about a young Jolie, whose mother volunteered to house the white Freedom School teacher. They were faced with angry and violent anglo Mississippi natives, that tried to deter these people from creating these education centers. Fortunately, their determination for justice and equality trumped their fears and the Freedom School was created and Jolie and many others were taught the things they had so long been deprived of. 

Evaluation: 

     These strong female characters are a light of the horrific racial injustices in the past for both white and black. It is another narrative that is a creative and helpful in the education of the civil rights movement. I would also like to use this book to help students with history and give them a creative way to use technology and literature to make connections. Students would read a selection of historical fiction children's literature that talked about the history of African Americans to create a timeline of events. Each event would be linked to the book and a blog like this one.