Tag Archives: Peaceful Protest

Elem. – Rocket Says Speak Up!

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Bryan, Nathan. Rocket Says Speak Up! Illustrated by Dapo Adeola. Random House, 2023. 978-0-593-43126-9. Unpaged. $18.99. Grades K-3. 

Rocket Says Speak Up! is a book about Rocket who loves to borrow books from her local public library. One day she gets a note from the librarian that the library has to close due to lack of money. Rocket decides that she wants to stage a peaceful protest in order to save the library. Through her hard work and spreading the word, they are able to save the public library and even buy a bookmobile for the library. The moral of this story is one that needs to be shared! The main character sprinkles little facts throughout the book which are fun for the reader as they go through the story.

THOUGHTS: This is a must own and must read aloud for every elementary school library collection. There are other picture books with this same character that would be worth purchasing for elementary school collections.

Picture Book

MG – Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round: My Story of Making Martin Luther King Day

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Kirkwood, Kathlyn J. Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round: My Story of Making Martin Luther King Day. Versify, 2022. 978-0-358-38726-8. 114 p. $16.99. Grades 3-7.

When Kathlyn Kirkwood is 17 years old, she realizes that racial discrimination is still very much present, especially in the South. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is fighting for change, and Kathlyn wants to be part of the movement. In 1968, The Negro Memphis sanitation workers go on strike for better working conditions like the white sanitation workers already receive. Dr. King comes to Memphis to support and lead the march – and Kathlyn decides to join in. The peaceful protest turns deadly when they are attacked, and it turns into a riot. The next month, Dr. King returns to march again, and Kathlyn cannot wait. The day before, she heads to the mall with her sister when she hears the breaking news: Dr. King has been killed right in her hometown of Memphis. All of his supporters knew that Dr. King deserved a day to commemorate the sacrifices he made to fight bigotry and hatred. One congressman, John Conyers, agreed, and introduced a bill for a Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday. It did not pass. Years go by and millions of people across the country sign a petition for the holiday, but it still does not pass. Undeterred, Kathlyn and fellow supporters (including singer Stevie Wonder) march, petition, and speak up for Dr. King until they finally accomplish their goal – 15 years later!

THOUGHTS: Kathlyn Kirkwood writes about this historical moment in lyrical verse paired with photographs, newspaper articles, flyers, and her own experiences. This is an important story for middle grade students to read and a must-buy for libraries.

Memoir           Danielle Corrao, Manheim Central SD
Novel in Verse

MG – Attack of the Black Rectangles

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King, Amy Sarig. Attack of the Black Rectangles. Scholastic Press, 2022. 978-1-338-68052-2. 258 p. $17.99. Grades 4-7.

Mac Delaney is excited to start 6th grade even though his teacher Ms. Sett is known around their small town for enforcing rather strict rules, such as a curfew for teenagers and no pizza delivery after a certain time of night. She even got the town to give up trick-or-treating at Halloween! Mac does not let her rules bother him; after all, he has his hands full trying to understand his dad who is struggling with an unnamed mental illness. When his class starts literature circles, Mac and his friends pick Jane Yolen’s The Devil’s Arithmetic. However, he is horrified to find that there are certain words and sentences covered in black rectangles, specifically words in the scene where the main character Hannah enters the shower at the concentration camp she is forced to go to. He buys the book from the local bookstore to compare the copies and finds that those black rectangles were put there by someone else in order to censor parts of the story. After finding out that Ms. Sett did indeed censor the book’s shower scenes because “some boys might giggle,” Mac is furious. Mac’s father does not understand what the big deal is, but Mac knows censorship is wrong. He and his friends decide they need to take action, and in doing so they find more people willing to fight against censorship than he ever thought possible.

THOUGHTS: A.S. King’s book shows the harm that censorship can have on a small community while handling the topic fairly. She clearly thinks highly of young adults as the young characters in this book are whip-smart and fully aware of the social issues that plague the world. This timely novel takes place in a famously small town in Lancaster, PA; local readers will enjoy seeing their favorite establishments pop up in the book as the backdrop to Mac’s story.

Realistic Fiction         Danielle Corrao, Manheim Central SD