The fight for civil rights

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon is a gripping exploration of the Civil Rights Movement in 1968. Sam is 14 and he's always obeyed his father, an eloquent civil rights leader who's committed to a path of nonviolence. Sam witnesses police brutality toward a friend of his, and then he learns that his older brother Stick is a member of the Black Panthers, whose beliefs are opposite of what he's been learning at home. Coupled with the news of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sam wants to do something, but he's torn by the two vastly different approaches to action and the growing conflict within his own family. This was a hard book for me to read for many reasons: the uncalled for violence, the desperation of people trying to do the right thing, the horror at how many were treated. However, this is an important piece of history to know about, and the book would be a good tie-in with the new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Bet your summer isn't like this one

Your "what I did on my summer vacation" essay will probably never tell of an experience like that in One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. The year is 1968, and 11-year-old Delphine has been sent to Oakland, California, with her two younger sisters to spend a month with Celine, the mother she barely remembers. With no sign of a motherly bone in her body, Celine sends the girls to a community center run by the Black Panthers to spend every day, orders them out to pick up Chinese food for every dinner, and clearly tells her daughters, "No one told y'all to come out here." The story is told in the voice of Delphine, who is trying to care for her sisters, learning a new (to her) aspect of the black community, and hoping to gain some sign of affection from her mother. The humor of sisters bugging sisters blended with the serious historical information of a turbulent time make for a great read.