A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story

Like many children, Sharon Langley took her first carousel ride supported by a parent's steadying hand. But Langley's August 1963 ride, a month before her first birthday, was also a landmark: the culmination of a sustained civil rights struggle to integrate the Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Baltimore. Framed as a conversation between Langley and her parents, the story recalls the sustained efforts of people working together that made Langley's ride possible. The structure of the carousel itself becomes an unexpected metaphor: "Nobody first and nobody last, everyone equal, having fun together." Cooper's richly textured illustrations, made using oil erasure on illustration board, evoke sepia photographs' dreamlike combination of distance and immediacy, complementing the aura of reminiscence that permeates Langley and Nathan's narrative. Robust supplemental information includes a bibliography, timeline, a note from Langley, and information about the carousel, which is now situated at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Ages 6-9. (Jan.)

Gr 1-4--As a young girl, Sharon Langley was forbidden to ride the carousel at Gwyn Oak Amusement Park in Baltimore because of her race. This picture book tells the story of how the park was desegregated in the summer of 1963. Following desegregation, the Langleys were the first African American family to walk into the park. Narrated in the first person, Langley's story is told with the wide-eyed enthusiasm of childhood. Her account is placed in the context of the civil rights movement by noting that August 28, 1963, was the day that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Today the carousel is located on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Illustrations rendered in muted colors fill the pages. VERDICT A solid addition to U.S. history collections for its subject matter and its first-person historical narrative.--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community College, Mt. Carmel