History For Dessert: Sit-In

My next Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book Finalist entry was read to me over two nights by my fourth grader, with an instruction by my sixth grader that he wanted the book when we were done.  I always feel a sense of pride that my kids still read picture books, although I don't know what I had to do with that or really why it gives me such warm fuzzies.  But I take my triumphs as I find them.

Sit-in: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea David Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney, tells the story of the fight for integration in the south, focused on the Woolworth counter where David, Joseph, Franklin and Ezell sat down in a quest for a coffee and donut with justice on the side.  The words of Martin Luther King Jr are sprinkled throughout, both showing how he inspired the students and linking the text to things my boys knew about. We dated the events by distance Before Mom, establishing me as somewhat younger than the dinosaurs.  The illustrations built on the text, bringing out the emotions and hopes of the people and times.  It was interesting to me to see how my son identified some of the races of the people drawn at the counter, because clearly we have different markers; his idea of white and black overlapped mine but were clearly not identical.  It was a fascinating peek into courage in the past.  A-