I couldn't stop reading this middle school-level memoir of a Little Rick Nine survivor's early years. I confess I know the basics of the Little Rock Nine experience, but haven't read any of the participants' autobiographies. I thought that this book would tell that story, but I was wrong. Rather than delve into her better-known year as a member of the Little Rock Nine, Mrs. Beals recounts her life up to the point of being chosen to integrate Central High School in Little Rock. Melba was a precocious child--aware from a very young age that she lived in a divided society where she not only had fewer luxuries than white peers, she had to live in deep and persistent fear at all times. At first I thought that there was no way such a young person could have perceived her situation so accurately, but I was won over in the end. Melba stood apart from many other children in her Little Rock neighborhood and she rightly felt the terror that white people wanted her to feel. I have read numerous books about Civil Rights era conditions, but I was shocked and appalled by several things that happened to Melba--most notably a KKK lynching that took place during a church service. The trauma she and all the Little Rock people of color experienced, should never happen to anyone, anywhere, ever again. In spite of how it may sound, this book is well-tuned to middle school and maybe even middle grade readers. It's a story that should be read widely--by adults and children.
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