When the Schools Shut Down: A Young Girl's Story of Virginia's Lost Generation and the Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka Decision

by Yolanda Gladden (Author) Keisha Morris (Illustrator)

When the Schools Shut Down: A Young Girl's Story of Virginia's Lost Generation and the Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka Decision
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

An awe-inspiring autobiographical picture book about a young African American girl who lived during the shutdown of public schools in Farmville, Virginia, following the landmark civil rights case Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka.

Most people think that the Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954 meant that schools were integrated with deliberate speed. But the children of Prince Edward County located in Farmville, Virginia, who were prohibited from attending formal schools for five years knew differently, including Yolanda.

Told by Yolanda Gladden herself, co-written by Dr. Tamara Pizzoli and with illustrations by Keisha Morris, When the Schools Shut Down is a true account of the unconstitutional effort by white lawmakers of this small Virginia town to circumvent racial justice by denying an entire generation of children an education. Most importantly, it is a story of how one community triumphed together, despite the shutdown.

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Hardcover
$19.99

Kirkus

Edifying and worth the read despite some flaws of execution.

Publishers Weekly

Acknowledging the importance of oral history in African diasporic traditions, this nonfiction account by Gladden (b. 1954), transcribed by Pizzoli, offers an engaging, community care-centered examination of segregation in the Virginia school system before and after Brown v. Board of Education. Four years after the decision was handed down, when Gladden was to begin school, officials closed every public school in her county to avoid integrating the institutions. The community reacted by creating its own schools. Pizzoli's rhythmic prose drives the narrative forward: "When Yolanda's mama and Aunt Dorothy graduated from high school in 1953, the conditions of public schools in Prince Edward County were still separate, still unequal, and still unfair." Collaged tissue paper and digital media art by Morris offers a lushly layered backdrop to the events, emphasizing the expressions and closeness of the Black community portrayed in this informative, warmly personable autobiography. Back matter features notes from the authors, a timeline of desegregation of the American school system, and sources and further reading. Ages 4-8. (Jan.)

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

A celebration of a community stepping up to educate its children, and a message that learning takes place in many venues other than schools.—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780063011168
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
HarperCollins
Publication date
January 11, 2022
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF018010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JNF007020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Historical
JNF025210 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | United States/20th Century
JNF007120 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Women
JNF050000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | School & Education
Library of Congress categories
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