Michael W. Waters

On an interfaith, family-based road trip, a young Black girl visits important landmarks of the civil rights movement.

Liberty is looking forward to seeing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but there are many stops before Selma. During the hours on the bus, Liberty plays with her friend Abdullah. The first stop is in Jackson, Mississippi, at the home of voting rights activist Medgar Evers. In Glendora, Mississippi, the group stops to remember Emmett Till. The next day, the group quietly remembers Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the site of his assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Finally, after stops at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham and Dr. King’s Montgomery home, the group reaches the bridge in Selma, Alabama, where they march and remember those who marched from Selma to Montgomery decades ago. Based on a true story of road trips organized by the author and attended by faith leaders and their families, this story highlights the relationship that links present generations and past. Though the dialogue between the children and adults feels a bit contrived, the focus on Liberty’s perspective during the tour of discovery allows readers to imagine the courage and sacrifice of those who came before. Each site introduction is necessarily brief and somewhat superficial; endnotes offer more details. Tadgell’s delicate illustrations capture warm relationships and diverse identities and personalities, juxtaposing light color in the present with black-and-white images of the past.

A unique and valuable perspective. (Picture book. 4-8)

-Kirkus Review… (more)

Fall 2021 (September);
~ LibraryThing Arc

Thank you to Michael W. Waters, Nicole Tadgell, Flyaway Books, and LibraryThing for this advanced reader copy for an honest review.

As an avid reader, lover of books, English Professor, and aunt of several amazing nieces and nephews, I do delight in choosing children's books every once in a while to be a reviewer on. I love, love, love this book. I love the diversity in it displayed by those on the trip, and the charm/realism of how these adults and children are tracing their steps back through some of the most important events that were the path to Civil Rights.

I was very pleased to see there were pages in the back, after the story ending, breaking down even more historical facts and details about the events/people/places that the tour stopped on, so that children can be even more educated to the details of those times.… (more)