Reviews

Many readers of this absorbing autobiography will be familiar with the incident for which Rosa Parks is best known: on December 1, 1955, she refused to surrender her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Ala.,stet comma/rl city bus. What this book provides is a framework that will enable its audience to put this historic moment into a broader context, and to appreciate the monumental effect on one woman and on an entire nation. Long before Parks's stand against racial segregation, her ``very strong sense of what was fair'' had provoked her to launch her own personal campaign against injustice. In lively anecdotal style, she describes her early family life and schooling, her run-ins with disdainful white children, her courtship and marriage to Raymond Parks and her active role in the Montgomery NAACP and in the civil rights movement. The simplicity and candor of this courageous woman's voice make these compelling events even more moving and dramatic. Some readers will be stunned by Parks's firsthand accounts of violence against blacks; all will be deeply impressed by her boundless energy and courage. All ages. (Feb.)

Gr 4-6-- This well-known story is considerably refreshed by Parks's personal narrative, punctuated by numerous black-and-white photographs. In simple, gracious, compelling language she describes her childhood, family life, and elusive educational opportunities. She explains how her husband encouraged and supported her participation in civil rights activities, and provides with clarity the generally paltry regard for the contributions of black women by the movement's organizers. In this recounting of her life, she corrects some media-created distortions of events. Her references to so many people may overwhelm some readers at times, but this does not diminish the overall impact of a wonderful, warm autobiography.-- Helen E. Williams, formerly at University of Maryland, College Park