Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down

The latest collaboration by this husband-and-wife team (the Caldecott Honor book "Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra") recreates the renowned 1960 sit-in staged by four black college students at a Greensboro whites only lunch counter. The narrative incorporates a steady stream of food metaphors, noting that the students ignored the laws recipe for segregation (a bitter mix) replacing it the new brew of integration. Unfortunately, this device is more trite than moving (Their order was simple: A double dose of peace, with nonviolence on the side) and, at times, can come across as glib. Brief quotations by Martin Luther King Jr. appear in large, blocky text, emphasizing his influence on the actions of this quartet as well as those who followed their lead, staging sit-ins across the South. Brian Pinkneys sinuous watercolor and ink art conveys the solidity and determination of the activists as well as a building energy that grew out of their act of civil disobedience. A succinct civil rights time line and additional facts and suggested reading about the topic round out this account. Ages 6up. "(Feb.)" Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

Gr 3-6 Through effectively chosen words, Andrea Pinkney brings understanding and meaning to what four black college students accomplished on February 1, 1960, by sitting down at a Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. Her repeated phrase, "Their order was simple. A doughnut and coffee with cream on the side," along with other food metaphors, effectively emphasizes the men's determination to undo the injustices of segregation in a peaceful protest, which eventually led up to the 1966 Supreme Court ruling against racial discrimination. With swirling swabs of color that masterfully intertwine with sometimes thin, sometimes thick lines, Brian Pinkney cleverly centers the action and brings immediacy to the pages. Both the words and the art offer many opportunities for discussion. The book concludes with a civil rights time line and an update on the aftermath of the lunch-counter struggle."Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA" Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.