Freedom Summer, 1964

In the Stories of the Civil Rights Movement series, each volume focuses on a pivotal event and targets a younger audience than most books on the subject. Illustrated with many well-chosen photos, the presentations include a number of fact-filled sidebars, including a one-page feature called Straight to the Source, offering passages from primary source documents and posing textbook-like questions designed to help students engage with the source material. In Freedom Summer, one volunteer describes several violent attacks on students and other civil rights workers who traveled to Mississippi during the summer of 1964. Although kids unfamiliar with the era may find some terms in the books confusing, the series offers good introductions to some important milestones in the American civil rights movement.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2016 Booklist

Gr 3-6-For such slim volumes, the content of this set on the civil rights movement is remarkably thorough. Each title begins with the basics of the event or case in question, drawing readers in with details that give the history immediacy, such as the Southern drawl of the bigoted driver who told Rosa Parks to go to the back of the bus and Elizabeth Eckford's careful grooming for the first day of school. Each book goes on to describe issues that led up to the event in question, as well as its impact. A "Stop and Think" feature sums up each volume with questions designed to foster critical thinking skills and empathy. The illustrations consist of 19th-century paintings of plantation life and 20th-century photographs. Many of the images, such as one portraying a snarling German shepherd police dog attacking a young black man, depict the intensity of the events. VERDICT Succinct and often powerful, this set is a solid purchase. © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This series provides upper-elementary students with in-depth coverage of phases and events of the U.S. civil rights movement. The narratives are supplemented effectively with archival photographs and primary source quotes. With overt Common Corerelated intention, readers are challenged with overabundant sidebars and inserts containing critical-thinking questions, writing prompts, and suggested research topics and readings. Reading list. Glos., ind. [Review covers these Stories of the Civil Rights Movement titles: James Meredith and the University of Mississippi, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Summer, 1964, The Little Rock Nine, Nonviolent Resistance in the Civil Rights Movement, The Passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington, and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.] (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.