32 Pages
Ages 4-8
Summary
This adorable picture book tells the story of young Ruby Bridges who was one of the first children chosen to begin integrating public schools. It begins by telling the reader about Ruby and how her family went to church every week. On the first day that Ruby went to school, there was an angry mob outside of the school and she had to be escorted to class by the National Guard. Inside the class room, there were no children and only one teacher. All of the parents refused to send their children to school with a black girl and all of the teacher refused to teach in a school with a black girl. Ruby was all alone except for the one teacher who volunteered to teach the little girl. One day, as the teacher watched Ruby walk to school, she saw her stop in the middle of the crowd and start to speak. The teacher was horrified and knew that if she didn't keep moving that the crowd was likely to harm her. When she asked Ruby why she had stopped, Ruby told her that every day on her way to school, she stopped about a block away and said a prayer for the angry people. That day she had forgot to say her prayer and did so as soon as she remembered.
This story is truly inspiring. It is hard to imagine what it would be like to be in Ruby's shoes. But I know one thing for certain. It would be hard to keep up the moral that that little girl had. I don't think that I would have had the temperament needed to be willing to pray for the people who threatened her life every day. Ruby had to endure death threats and so much more. On of the most vivid things that sticks out in my memory is that every day someone brought a casket with them to the school and displayed a black doll inside the casket. That is unnerving to me. I can't even imagine what it must have been like for the little girl. This book, however, does not go into much detail about all of the gruesome aspects of Ruby's experience. Rather, it focusses on Ruby's courage and is a wonderful book for any age.
.jpg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment