Freedom Summer

by Deborah Wiles (Author) Jerome Lagarrigue (Illustrator)

Freedom Summer
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

John Henry swims better than anyone I know.

He crawls like a catfish,

blows bubbles like a swamp monster,

but he doesn't swim in the town pool with me.

He's not allowed.

Joe and John Henry are a lot alike. They both like shooting marbles, they both want to be firemen, and they both love to swim. But there's one important way they're different: Joe is white and John Henry is black, and in the South in 1964, that means John Henry isn't allowed to do everything his best friend is. Then a law is passed that forbids segregation and opens the town pool to everyone. Joe and John Henry are so excited they race each other there...only to discover that it takes more than a new law to change people's hearts.

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Publishers Weekly

Set in Mississippi during the summer of 1964, this affecting debut book about two boys-one white, the other African-American-underscores the bittersweet aftermath of the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Kirkus

Starred Review
Teachers and parents could use this book as a quiet but powerful introduction to the prejudice experienced by many Americans.

Review quotes



Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780689878299
Lexile Measure
600
Guided Reading Level
M
Publisher
Aladdin Paperbacks
Publication date
January 01, 2005
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV011010 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JUV016150 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | United States - 20th Century
JUV039120 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Prejudice & Racism
Library of Congress categories
Friendship
African Americans
United States
Race relations
Race discrimination

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