Manga can be so hard to read and so confusing. In this one, I sometimes had to give up trying to figure out what exactly what was happening and just sort of jump forward. Ageha is a high school student known for fierce fighting, and he'd do anything for the right price. When a girl he barely knows disappears practically before his eyes, he learns about an urban legend that claims anyone who uses a special read "psyren" phone card disappears and never comes back. There's a huge reward for solving this legendary mystery, so without a second thought, Ageha grabs a card and jams it in the nearest payphone. He finds himself in the world of Psyren, where the missing people are together to play a dangerous game that leaves most of them dead. The girl he was looking for, Sakurako, definitely knows more than she's letting on. But as I said, I had to take huge jumps to follow this story. The fight sequences were virtually unreadable. For better manga, try Fullmetal Alchemist.

It's hard to talk about Book 2 without giving away the ending from Book 1: Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life . Let's just say something nice happens at the end of Book 1, but it's wiped out by circumstances out of Rafe's control at the beginning of Book 2. He faces a major disappointment, but his Mom and a dear teacher step up and try to encourage him to the the best student and artist he can be in a new school. If only there weren't any kids in that new school. Turns out there are jerks and bullies everywhere, and a school for the arts is no exception. Rafe does his best to ignore them and find his place among the gifted art students, but where the heck is his place? Leo the Silent is back, once again encouraging Rafe to "try new things." You will be crossing your fingers for Rafe.

I kept thinking that I've read this book before. Turns out I was just surprised at the similarities between this true story and the fictional version in Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. She did an amazing job keeping the story straight and including real people! In this non-fiction account, Mr. Murphy also pulls no punches. The book is arranged chronologically, beginning with the brief stories of the first citizens in Philadelphia who were later thought to have died of Yellow Fever. He then advances slowly through that long hot summer, stretching into October. He does a wonderful job of conveying the fear of the citizens, the helplessness of the doctors, and the frustration of the politicians, including George Washington. If you are offended by gross body functions, this is probably not the book for you, as Mr. Murphy does not shy away from the symptoms of the fever or the brutality of the treatments that sadly, failed to end the epidemic.

Every once in a while a book comes along that makes me into a new person. This book is on that list (see also Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key /Jack Gantos, Runaway /Wendelin VanDraanen...). John Elder Robinson has Asperger's, a condition on the milder end of Autism that I hate using the word "mild" to describe. He has some gifts that are part of his condition, including a remarkable memory that allows him to recall moments in the very early part of his childhood, when he first began to realize he wasn't like other people. My heart broke as he shared how his inability to understand and express emotion made children shun him, and adults label him as hopeless and dangerous. I'm going to get this book in the hands of as many teachers as possible. If we can see the logic that leads John Elder to blurt out some really very surprising (and occasionally frightening) statements, maybe we can use that understanding to help other kids with Asperger's express themselves better. This memoir will give hope to other young people in John's situation, and will help the rest of us understand and know them.

The full title of this book is Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High . In the 1950s, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools (that is, separate schools for white and black students) were illegal, and that every state had to integrate. Most states slowly complied, but in Little Rock, Arkansas, a large number of staunch segregationists tried to bring the Civil Rights movement to a screeching halt. This is the very personal story of Melba Beals, one of nine brave black students who signed up to attend all-white Central High. For one long school year, she stood up to daily torture from the white students and teachers who clearly, blatantly hated her just because of the color of her skin. The things that were said and done to her were so unbearable, yet she kept going back, day after day after day. She saw herself as just a girl, not a hero, but I think you'll find otherwise.

Big thanks to Elayna for suggesting this heartwarming realistic fiction. Melody is almost eleven, and she is a genius: she remembers every fact she reads, every picture she's seen, and every conversation she's overheard. Unfortunately no one but Melody knows how smart she really is, because she suffers from severe cerebral palsy. She is confined to a wheelchair all day, every day, limited to only grunts and moaning, unable to speak and just barely in control of any movement at all. Despite a very loving family, she's been passed from teacher to teacher for years without anyone noticing her intelligence, until a perceptive fifth grade teacher helps her get a machine that speaks for her, and suddenly the whole world opens up. If you liked Wonder , I think you'll connect with Melody too. Putting myself in her shoes (well, wheels) for a while really opened up my eyes.

I've been handing out this short book about the bombing of Pearl Harbor for years - it's about time I sat down and read it! Harry Mazer did not not disappoint. Adam is a high school freshman, and struggles to make friends when his family once again is uprooted for his Navy officer dad's transfer - this time to the base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Adam is just beginning to find his place when the unthinkable happens: Japanese bombers attack, and his father's ship, the Arizona, goes down. What I thought was really unique about this story was that the author didn't make a big deal about it being Historical Fiction. I wasn't sure for a long time if it was 1941 or 2011. Adam finds himself swept into the chaos that follows the attack, and you really feel his family's pain and fear as they wait to find out if dad has survived. This is the first in a trilogy of short but excellent books.

Like the other books in the series ( Sir Charlie Chaplin and Mark Twain ), this took me a looong time to read. The author used vernacular from Houdini's time, and that was really hard to plow through. However, like the other books, I kept reading because I really wanted to know about the subject. I knew Houdini was a magician and more famously an escape artist, but I had no idea how often he had put his life in danger or how much he struggled throughout his career. Yikes! I also enjoyed reading about his long marriage to Bess, the love of his life, who was also his stage manager, business partner and co-performer right until the end. Mr. Fleischman offered a cool perspective on Houdini because he has worked as a semi-professional magician and so knows some of the master's secrets, and had even met Bess in his youth. This is a good story, if you can get through it.

Imagine a future where Society has made everything nice and easy and pleasant for everyone by taking every decision out of the hands of individuals. Your meals are perfectly balanced with exactly the nutrients you require; your education is tailored to prepare you for your future career, which of course is selected for you based on your natural skills. And love: no problem! Your perfect match is selected based on your history of likes and dislikes, and is presented to you with much fanfare on your 17th birthday! Cassia is surprised but relieved and thrilled when her Match turns out to be Xander, her childhood neighbor and best friend. But when she looks at the data uploaded for her by the Society, she is surprised to see Ky's face instead of Xander's. It seems the Officials have made a mistake, and it gets Cassia thinking thoughts she had never entertained before, like why shouldn't she fall in love with whomever she chooses? As a dystopian fiction, this will make you think of Hunger Games somewhat, but love is in the forefront in this one, with revolution in the distant background. In Book 1, at least. I suspect the rebellion will be brewing when I get to Book 2!

Fifteen year old twins Josh and Sophie have archeologist parents, so they've been raised knowing lots of legends, and it's a good thing, because in the first crazy scene, they take their own personal place in the world of mythology. Josh is working at the book store across the street from Sophie's job at a coffee shop when an evil wizard and his golems show up and blast the place to pieces, demanding that the shop owner give up The Book. The book is The Codex, which explains the secret to eternal life (among others), and the shop owner is none other than 600+ year old Nicholas Flemel, a real alchemyst who is credited with many magical discoveries (and who is referenced heavily in the first Harry Potter book!). I was really impressed at how this author wove reality and mythologies together in this book, and how he explained the different but similar legends from different historical times and different parts of the world. It seems that magic is just magic and it always has been, and Josh and Sophie are part of it, whether they want to be or not. I really loved this, and I'm looking forward to more in this series.

I read an article by author Chris VanAllsburg in which he stated that a nonsense book for children is only worth reading if, in addition to being so silly it makes readers laugh, it actually has a point to make in the end. I spent a lot of time plodding through Doctor Proctor searching for that point. Eleven year old Nilly, a tiny trumpet-playing smart mouth, has moved to Oslo, Norway, where he quickly befriends his neighbors, lonely Lisa and eccentric Doctor Proctor. The doctor has dozens of inventions in his lab basement, including the featured powder, which comes in two strengths: Regular, which is great for selling at school to make everyone laugh, and Super, which the friends hope to sell to NASA for blasting fartonauts into outer space. Unfortunately someone else has their eye on the powder, and a plot is hatched to steal the powder and the fame they expect will come with it. The point? Surprisingly, it was less about passing gas and more about taking a chance to make a friend.

When I was in fifth grade, I loved The House With the Clock in its Walls , a really scary fantasy by John Bellairs. If my library had had more books by him, I would have devoured them. But if I had read this, I would NEVER read another of his books again. It's that bad. Sixth grader Anthony Monday hangs out in the public library, helping out on evenings and weekends. That's cool, but he's so close to the librarian, Miss Eels, that he ends up going on vacation to northern Canada with her and her brother. That's just weird. A mysterious chest appears in an empty room in the old house they're staying in, so they jump inside (who wouldn't?) and are transported to another dimension, where they spy on a group of strange old men called Autarchs who plan to take over our dimension. Or so Anthony and the Eels siblings guess. And amazingly, they guess exactly right, as they continue to do through out this lame "mystery." I'm not sure if Mr. Bellairs just cranked this out when he was 90 years old or what, but it's pretty bad. I'll try one more just because I loved House , but if it's this bad, it might spell the end of Bellairs in the TRA library.

Here Book 2, following Shiver , which I just read a few days ago. This one is a little more mature, and a little less interesting, as Book 2s often are. A few more people have learned Grace and Sam's secret, and their fairy tale romance is showing the strain of hiding so much. There is more exploration of why Grace never turned wolf, though she was bitten long ago in the attack where she first encountered Sam. I'm glad there's trouble going on, since there should be, in a small town where people seem to come and go so sporadically. It's about someone noticed there's something funny about those wolves, don't you think? I can't wait to read Forever , in which it will hopefully be revealed that the lovers live happily ever after, or else go out together like Romeo and Juliet.

I have read a couple of other books about the Lost Boys of Sudan, most recently A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park. But this is the first I've read about Lost Girls. When Sudan began a Civil War in the 1980s, the Muslim government from the North tried to make the whole country follow their Islamic rule, which did not fit for the many diverse tribes in the South. So, they took the small villages by force, very easy for a well funded government to do, bombing the defenseless small villages filled with unarmed farmers. Hundreds of thousands of adults were killed or forced into the army, leaving thousands of children, mainly young boys, to wander in search of food and shelter. John is one of the boys, and he becomes a leader who helps younger boys find the will to survive. But there are girls lost too, taken in by foster families almost as slaves. Martha is such a girl, and she longs for an education to pull her out of the dismal future Sudan seems to hold for her. This is the most straightforward account of these horrors that I've read. It's sad but hopeful, and hits remarkably close to home, as John and Martha now make their home in Syracuse, New York.

This werewolf love story started a little syrupy, but by the end I was all in love, I admit. Seventeen year old Grace lives on the outskirts of town by Boundary Woods, where a wolf pack has survived, causing occasional trouble, for years. When Grace was little, she was once attacked by the pack while playing in her backyard, but one wolf with haunting yellow eyes pulled her to safety, and she's felt a connection to this wolf ever since. So it's kind of a shock when she finds him naked and bleeding and definitely human on her back deck, recognizable by his smell and his distinct yellow eyes. He's a werewolf, for lack of a better word, though this author's interpretation of that "monster" is unique. If you are looking for a slightly scary love story, this is by far better than the Twilight or any vampire stories I've read, and it leaves enough mystery that I am eager to read the two other books in the trilogy. YA on this for sure.

Here's a tricky mystery from an author I already love for his scary stuff (Skeleton Creek) and his fantasy ( Dark Hills Divide )! Eleven-year old Leo Fillmore is the son and assistant of the maintenance man at the unusual Whippet Hotel. The hotel is the life's work of eccentric millionaire Merganzer Whippet, who filled it with his strange, surprising inventions before he disappeared, exactly 100 days ago. Leo loved Merganzer like a grandpa, and he's been missing him terribly as he goes through his daily tasks, walking the ducks and repairing the plumbing. Then suddenly a package is delivered to him: it's a box, with what looks like a model of one floor of the hotel in it, with an invitation (or is it a dare?) for Leo to find three other hidden boxes and in the process, save his beloved Whippet Hotel. If you're a fan of the silly genre (see Fake Mustache, Mr. and Mrs. Bunny, The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity ...), you'll enjoy this.

I love this author's Emily Windsnap series, but to me, this is much weaker. Jenni is 12, and she looks forward to her family's week at the river every summer, when her best friend Autumn's family vacations at the same spot as well. In a hurry to get to Autumn's place and get to a horse back riding lesson, Jenni rushes into the rusty old manual elevator, which is usually locked and broken, but lights right up when she gets on board. But when she gets to the second floor, she finds she is also a whole year in the future, and it's not at all what she's expecting: Autumn's family is falling apart after a horrible accident, and Jenni's parents are suddenly on the verge of splitting up! Jenni has to find a way to get back, and to stop all this from happening. It's a good idea, but it just isn't written as well as the Windsnap books. Jenni and Autumn sound strange and awkward. But this book has a nice cover, so I'm sure some readers will give it a try.

Girls, you are going to love this one! Charlotte is 14, in 9th grade, and has her first kiss in chapter one. It isn't the romantic, meaningful moment she's been waiting for, but rather a rushed, messy and confusing event that lands her and Kevin in the principal's office. Further confusing is the fact that within a few weeks, Kevin is dating not Charlie but her best friend Tess. And making things worse: Charlie's mother is suddenly dating Kevin's father. With a hilarious sense of humor and a good heart, Charlie makes her way, trying to balance being true to her friends and being true to herself. Sarah Dessen fans will really enjoy this. And Rachel Vail has made me laugh before, too - try Wonder . Hysterical!

Kacey Simon is the most beautiful, sophisticated, confident, popular, snotty 8th grader you've ever known. She hosts a weekly "advice" segment on her middle school's TV station, but it's not so much advice as it is clever, mean put-downs reminding the whole school who's cool and who isn't, and suggesting they all know their place and stay in it. I honestly hated her, but you know from the title that change is coming. It starts with an eye infection, followed by some unruly wisdom teeth, and then Kacey's friends abandon her as quickly as she would have them, were the situation reversed. I didn't love reading this, because I thought the eighth graders were a little more adult than they should have been. On the other hand, it you love Lisi Harrison's Clique series, you'll love this. It does have some satisfying moments of Kacey getting what she deserves, and rising above it all.

Twelve-year old Scrub is dreading spending summer at his Grandma's place in the woods of Washington. He figures the Intergalactic Bed & Breakfast will be filled with dorky Star Trek fans speaking Klingon. But he figures out quickly that Grandma's got more than that going on: through the transporters located in the guest rooms, this inn is where real aliens come to Earth to spend their vacations. Business is booming, and Scrub becomes her trusty assistant, helping the "tourists" get their disguises and make up just right so that they can visit the village and hike in the woods without panicking the natives. But the locals are already suspicious, especially Sheriff Tate, and Scrub soon finds himself in the tough dilemma of either helping Grandma or giving her secrets away.

I recently read a good overview of the events in Salem that would be enough for most readers (see Witches! by Shanzer). If you were super interested in this topic however, and you wanted to know more, this is a great follow up. This author researched meticulously, tracing the history of the accusers and the victims, then slowly telling their stories in chronological order. He stops again and again to offer different ways of thinking about the events and people involved. There are so many details we can never know for sure, but he offers some sensible ideas and theories to fill in those blanks. This is such a detailed work that it's pretty challenging to read, but the characters came alive for me as never before. Pick this up is you have a serious curiosity about the trials.

I picked this book up when the Twilight -vampire-love craze was at it's height, and although it's not exactly what I thought it would be, I'm sending it up to the high school. I was expecting sexy teenage vampires. Instead, it's World War I and young officer John is horrified when his commander, Harker, seems to revel in the blood of his victims. He is haunted by his bloody memories after he is wounded and catches trench fever, then spends months in a sanatorium having violent nightmares until a lovely young nurse brings him back to reality. But when he is discharged he discovers his former captain now living in his house, slowly romancing his younger sister! I don't think I'm giving too much away if I tell you that Captain Harker is a descendent in the bloodline of Count Dracula himself, and they need to get that sweet girl away from him before things really go bad. Not a bad story, but more appropriate for the High School audience, so try this one next year, Twi-hards.

This historical fiction is written about what I think is a shameful period in US history. After Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese during World War II, the US government rounded up all immigrants and American citizens of Japanese descent, forced them to give away or sell anything they owned (including property or businesses), then put them in camps for several years, until they were deemed not to be a threat to national security. They weren't tortured or starved or hurt in these camps, but they weren't free, either. For 12 year old Tetsu, whose father was taken elsewhere and has not been heard from again, life in an internment camp becomes a little more bearable when one of the dads organizes the boys to clear a baseball diamond out in the hot rocky desert of Arizona. This is based on several true stories sort of blended together, and it gives a really great snapshot of what life was like during those difficult years. For a girl's perspective of the same topic (minus the baseball), try Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata.

The spooky picture on the cover drew me to this fantasy. The author has created a world that is totally fascinating, if a little tough to figure out. It seems to take place on another planet, where there are seven moons in the sky, and the plants and animals that live there are strange and often dangerous. Humans, left there centuries ago by The Makers, have managed to survive thanks to relics, bits of technology that are slowly losing power but that can be coaxed into working by Keepers of The Order. Keepers seem kind of like priests, but they also have some supernatural abilities. Raffi, age 16, has been apprenticed to Galen Harn, one of the most skilled keepers left alive after The Watch outlawed their work and started hunting them down. Raffi and Galen are on the run, and though their work is illegal, most citizens still believe in them and help when they can. While much of this novel (the first in a 4 part series) is about explaining the world of Anara, you can see that we're setting up for a show down between The Order and The Watch, and the Order is badly outnumbered. Though some may find this confusing, the author is good enough that she drew me into Book 2: The Lost Heiress . Anara started to fall into chaos when the last emporer died, and rumor has it there is a descendent still alive who could be used to rebuild some sort of peace. But will she be found (and controlled) by the Order or the Watch? It's a close call, and Raffi and Galen and their allies struggle to decide which side they want to be on in the end. This was good enough that I'll look for books 3 and 4. Lots of action in these!

I just discovered the dynamic duo of author Sy Montgomery and photographer Nic Bishop!! In 2006 they traveled to the cloud forests of New Guinea to document the tree kangaroo, an adorable little marsupial that lives in the trees. They worked with a team of biologists, conservationists and locals who make sure that this unusual species is safely protected. The formula worked so well that they teamed up again in 2009 for Saving the Ghost of the Mountain , visiting Mongolia, home of the endangered snow leopard. The layout of the book was similar, describing their expedition with a team of scientists, but this one surprised me because they never actually saw a live cat on this trip, just lots of leopard poop. Yet when you learn about the science behind their mission, you see what a success it was anyway. The newest book, Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot , has to be my favorite. The Kakapo, once common all over the islands around New Zealand, has been reduced to total world population of only 86. What a dedicated crew of scientists and volunteers it takes to try to increase that population and ensure that this charming, unusual bird survives. These are beautiful books, full of amazing pictures. Any future veterinarians, biologists, or even just animal lovers will be wild about these.

Over the years I've heard lots of students say they'd like to be Marine Biologists when they grew up. In fact I have a cousin who is one! But what exactly do they do? Something with dolphins and whales, I think.... Sophie Webb is a Marine Biologist, and this book is her journal during a four month trip on the ocean. She gives an excellent day by day explanation of exactly what her career is all about, and why it's so important. She includes her own sketches and drawings of the boat that is her temporary home, and of all the wildlife she and her colleagues encounter on their mission, as they head for open water to count and monitor bird and mammal populations. What a cool lady, and what a cool job! Now I want to be a Marine Biologist too. Find Sophie's journal on the shelf at 591.77 Web.

Have you ever wished you could unread a book? I wish I could remove from my memory the last hour and a half, in which I devoured every page of this terrifying book. This author states in her forward that when she was young she loved reading ghost stories, but it seemed like every book just retold the same old stories (think Short and Shivery or Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ). Scary the first time, but not really believable. So she set out as an adult to find real stories that can't be explained, and this is the frightening result. Most of the stories are short, and include such non-dramatic events as lost keys and creaky noises. I realize not every reader will find them very scary. But I couldn't shake the idea that the author felt these were true, as did the people who shared their experiences with her, and that was totally scary to me. There are two other similar titles by Leslie Rule, and you'll find them together on the shelf at 133.1 Rul. Now have fun sleeping with the lights on!

This book reminded me of The Mighty Miss Malone , because both are set in the US in the 1930s and both include references to the great black boxer Joe Louis, who was truly an American hero of those times. Miss Malone was largely about Civil Rights, and although the characters in Bird are black, it seems to be more about kids dealing with loss and pain than about race. Otis survived the accident that killed his parents and is a resident of Elmira, New York's Home for Orphaned Negros. Willie is not quite an orphan, but is safer at the Home than with his parents. Hibernia is the daughter of the Reverend of the True Vine Baptist Church, and how her path crosses with the boys is the best part of this book. It's like a little bit of sweetness in lives that know a great deal of pain. I also appreciated a book set in Elmira, which is just down the road from us! Very cool.

I thought this non-fiction book was going to be a boring chapter-by-chapter of high and low pressure systems and wind speeds blah blah blah... WRONG! The first awesome thing this author did was to write this book in the first person ("From my lookout in City Hall..."). He is a native of southern Florida, and grew up experiencing a hurricane or two every year as a child. So when he became a reporter, it seemed natural that the New York Times should send him South (or sometimes West) whenever a newsworthy storm seemed likely. He covered so many storms and interviewed so many scientists over the years that he became a bit of an expert on hurricanes himself, and this book is the culmination of everything he's learned over the years. While he talks about many famous hurricanes through history, there is definitely a lot of coverage of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which is important because not only was it one of the most catastrophic storms ever in the US, but it actually happened during the lifetimes of our TRA students, so it's something I think they (you!) will be able to really connect with. Nice job, Mr. Treaster! Find this at 551.55 Tre.

Don't ask me why I didn't read this a few books ago, when I read Deborah Hopkinson's wonderful Voices From the Titanic . These two go nicely together. While Ms. Hopkinson focuses on telling personal stories from a few specific points of view, Ms. McPherson gives a larger overview of the whole Titanic story, from the sinking in 1912 to modern salvage efforts in 2012. This book has many more pictures, but with over 100 pages of sophisticated writing, don't mistake it for a picture book. There's a lot of content here, which would make it a good introduction to the Titanic's story for an older reader. She also discusses why 100 years later, this topic is still so popular. To me, it just shows that no matter how great we think technology is, nature will win in the end. Check 910 McP for this book, and find several other Titanic titles on the shelf at that number as well.

I included this book in the Mock Newbery running because it had positive reviews from several important sources. If I had read it first, I might not have included it. This is my least favorite of the bunch! This is from what I call the genre of Silliness, where crazy things happen that totally never would, and you have to just roll with it and laugh to enjoy the story. I recently read one I liked (see The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity ), but this one really stretches your imagination. When his best friend puts on a $200 fake mustache he buys from a novelty store, everyone except Lenny is hypnotized by his greatness and believes he is the amazing leader, Fako Mustacho. He uses this power to rob a bank, then moves on to larger and larger crimes until he has hyptonized everyone in the world and plans to take over the presidency. But Lenny sees the real Casper, as does Jodie O'Rodeo, currently unemployed child star, and the two battle hordes of hypnotized plumbers, karate experts, and chefs to get to Casper and reveal his true identity. Yikes. This author also wrote the popular Origami Yoda , which has been in constant demand in our library. Try this if you loved that.

If you are a Civil War buff, or someone who likes to study the history of weapons or war, or maybe even a fan of archeology, you might like this book. I'm none of those, and I didn't, even though it was a Robert F. Sibert award winner for non-fiction. It's about the first American submarine, a Confederate invention that successfully took out one Union ship in the Charleston Harbor during the Civil War. But that was it's only success, as far as I can see. Two early versions of the sub sank straightaway, and the one that finally made it, the H.L. Hunley, sank twice killing two entire crews before it's one and only useful mission, which ended with the deaths of a third crew! By whose measure can that be called success? Anyway, this book covers that dismal history in a bright and cheerful tone, then forwards 130 years to the recovery of the wreck and the careful excavation that followed. This reminded me a little of Lincoln's Flying Spies , by Gail Jarrow, which details attempts to make hot air balloons into war machines during the Civil War. I guess a lot of men experimented on ways to creatively kill each other during the 1860s, which I just find depressing. Find this at 973.7 Wal.

I've read a lot of books about Civil Rights Movement this summer, but I still had some uncertainty about the individual events. This book helped clear that up. In Freedom Walkers (see last post), you'll read about Rosa Parks and her stand aboard a public bus in 1955, and the year long bus boycott that followed, a year which also saw the rise of young Martin Luther King Jr. Fast forward almost a decade to 1963 for this book, which focuses on the dismal state of equaility in Selma, a smaller city about 30 miles from Montgomery, Alabama. Although laws were in place by this time officially ending segregation, local police were all about keeping segregation in place, especially when it came to registering black voters. Martin Luther King was by now a respected and recognized activist, and he came to Selma to help the people overcome those local bigots using marches to nonviolently but forcefully demand their right to vote. The whites reacted with shameful violence and hate, and were countered again and again by peaceful demonstration and strength, much of it coming from children and young adults. I didn't realize that Dr. King advocated having young people march, demanding rights for themselves and their parents, without putting those adults at risk of being fired from their jobs. It all culminated in one major march from Selma to Montgomery. Find this in Civil Rights, 323.11 Par.