Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/01/2009 *Starred Review* Nine months before Rosa Parks’ history-making protest on a city bus, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old Montgomery, Alabama, high-school student, was arrested and jailed for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. Hoose draws from numerous personal interviews with Colvin in this exceptional title that is part historical account, part memoir. Hoose’s lucid explanations of background figures and events alternate with lengthy passages in Colvin’s own words, and the mix of voices creates a comprehensive view of the Montgomery bus boycott and the landmark court case, Browder v. Gayle, that grew from it. At the center of the headline-grabbing turmoil is teenager Colvin, who became pregnant during the boycott; and her frank, candid words about both her personal and political experiences will galvanize young readers. On each attractively designed spread, text boxes and archival images, including photos and reproduced documents, extend the gripping story. As in Hoose’s We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. History (2001), this inspiring title shows the incredible difference that a single young person can make, even as it demonstrates the multitude of interconnected lives that create and sustain a political movement. Thorough chapter notes and suggestions for further reading close this title, which will find an avid readership beyond the classroom. - Copyright 2009 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 02/01/2009 Too long relegated to sidebars in discussions of Rosa Parks’ historic act of civil disobedience, teenager Claudette Colvin‘s significant contribution to the struggle for equal accommodation is presented in this biography that smoothly weaves excerpts from Hoose’s extensive interviews with Colvin and his own supplementary commentary. As Colvin’s voice dominates the presentation, readers learn firsthand why her arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger never became the crucial incident to spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott and, just as importantly, how the teenager felt about being passed over for what would become the very public role of racial activist. By shifting the focus away from the better-known adult participants, Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., Hoose encourages teens to empathize with an age peer, once dismissed as too “emotional” to withstand public scrutiny, who later testified in the federal lawsuit that would finally end discrimination on public transportation. Plenty of black-and-white photographs and well-deployed sidebars enhance the text, and annotated notes, as well as an index and bibliography, are included. Once readers have met Claudette Colvin, it will be difficult to consider the Rosa Parks story without also hearing this proud voice insisting, “But I made a personal statement, too, one that [Parks] didn’t make and probably couldn’t have made. Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one.” EB - Copyright 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.