Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 11/01/2024 In a fine example of “what goes around comes around,” this historical anecdote begins with the fruitless efforts of 16-year-old book lover Lewis to get a card at his local public library, and it ends 42 years later with him being ceremoniously presented with one. In between, Miller charts Lewis' course as a marcher, Freedom Rider, politician, author, all-around civil rights hero, and librarian’s husband. Though in tallying the tough, dangerous work of “John and his friends” Miller may give the impression that Lewis led the entire civil rights movement, she offers clear and concise overviews of its—and many of Lewis'—accomplishments, with more-specific highlights and violent details relegated to the back matter. Among vignettes of dark-skinned figures marching, protesting, and voting, Jordan mixes in views of Lewis as a teenager being rejected by a huffy-looking librarian, later as a grown man waving his new card at a crowd of fans, and finally absorbed in a book and surrounded by piles of others. Lewis’ legacy and strength of character shine out here. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.