Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins

Rhuday-Perkovich offers a sensitive story based on African-American educator and activist Clara Luper, who, in 1958, organized students to take part in a lunch counter sit-in in Oklahoma City. The book conveys Luper's early awakening to racial inequity: as a child, her father assured her that "someday" she would be permitted to go to the places designated as "whites only." Luper channeled her energies into teaching black children about history and the power of nonviolent demonstration, and she joined them in demanding to be served at Katz Drug Store. Rhuday-Perkovich integrates historical content into her prose, though she takes some liberties with undocumented lines of dialogue: "All of these people died for our freedom.... We need to really get busy and do something for our country." Johnson's stylized work features blocky figures against a palette of orange, yellow, and chartreuse. An authentic tribute to a brave and compassionate activist. Ages 6-9. (Aug.)

Gr 3-5--This nonfiction picture book follows Clara Luper from her childhood to her mentorship of students in nonviolent resistance during the 1950s and 60s. As an Oklahoma City school teacher, Luper wrote a play for her pupils, who then toured cross-country with her and witnessed the contrast between the integrated Northern cities they visited and the still segregated Southern cities they performed in, and were subsequently motivated to affect positive change in their communities back home, including sit-ins. Rhuday-Perkovich's decision to include Luper's struggle between wanting to keep her students safe and wanting them to act humanizes this civil rights hero, and makes her choices more relatable and meaningful, as does the author's powerful word choice in describing the abusive drugstore customers not as anonymous bullies, but as spitting mothers and screaming fathers. This reminder that the struggle for equality is just as much mental as physical adds a welcome profundity. Johnson has illustrated the narrative in a tableau style, with a bold yellow- and blue-based color palette. The focal points are the expressive outsized faces of the cast of characters, who are all carefully posed. Unembellished backgrounds in muted tones make these characters (and several "whites only" signs) stand out all the more boldly. Back matter includes a brief biography of Luper and explains the four steps of nonviolent resistance depicted in the book. VERDICT Rhuday-Perkovich powerfully teaches young readers that standing up sometimes means standing out. A top addition to nonfiction collections.--Lauren Younger, Nicholson Memorial Library, Garland, TX