In 1960, African American first grader, Ruby Bridges, helped to integrate the New Orleans public schools, passing a mob of demonstrating segregationists every day on her way to class, where she was taught by a courageous white teacher, Barbara Henry. Ruby's affecting and inspirational autobiographical account is interspersed with quotes by eyewitnesses, her mother, the newspapers, and child psychiatrist, Robert Coles, who worked with Ruby.

For that entire year, six-year-old Ruby attended the William Frantz Elementary School, an all-white school, where most of the students and their parents assembled every morning to protest their school's integration. Ruby's teacher, Barbara Henry, came to work every day to work with her only student. Unaware that the hubbub outside was all about her, Ruby jumped rope at home with her friend and chanted, "Two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate," assuming the crowds' hateful refrain was just another jump-rope rhyme. With its haunting, sepia-toned photographs, this is an indispensable addition to literature on the Civil Rights Movement in America and on children who made a difference. What is clear when you read Ruby's account is just how much the U. S. has changed in 50 years, something that will impress children who are unaware of how things used to be.

Norman Rockwell painted a famous painting of Ruby being escorted to school by U. S. marshals, and called it "The Problem We All Live With." John Steinbeck wrote about her in his book, Travels with Charley: In Search of America (Penguin Books, 1986, c1962). Robert Coles later wrote about her in his adult book, The Moral Life of Children (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986), and his children's book, The Story of Ruby Bridges.

Reviewed by JF.

THEMES: AFRICAN AMERICANS. AUTOBIOGRAPHY. U.S. HISTORY. WOMEN.