Books to review come to me in different ways: sometimes from the author, sometimes from a librarian and sometimes from the publishing house. That is what happened here when Calkin Creek sent me this book. I was tickled when I opened the envelope and found not only a great picture book, but saw that it was written by one of my SCBWI buddies, Jo S. Kittinger. Just when I thought there was no way to give the story of Rosa Parks a fresh new twist, Jo came up with one.
Rosa's Bus tells the tale of bus number 2857: how it rolled off the assembly line in 1948 and made it down to Montgomery, Alabama around the time the civil rights movement started. The bus had a moveable sign on the seats that indicated where colored people could sit; f they did not obey the bus rules, they could be arrested.
In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. The incident sparked a boycott of the buses. 382 people walked instead of riding, and bus number 2857 ran almost empty. Finally the Supreme Court ruled that black people could sit anywhere on any bus. Eventually bus 2857got old and although saved from the junkyard, was left to rust in a field. The man who bought it waited for the right time, however--a time when people realized how important that bus was--and sold it to the Henry Ford Museum, where it was restored.
This story has beautiful illustrations and great language to help kids understand a time when a simple bus changed history.
Jo it is a great story and I was so happy to review it. Congrats on all accounts!!!
Posted by: tina | November 14, 2010 at 12:20 AM
Thank you, Tina, for sharing my book with your blog followers! It's so nice to be among friends!
Posted by: Jo S. Kittinger | November 13, 2010 at 09:14 AM