BUYING ADVISORY: EL - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
A bunch of kids in the inner city love playing all kinds of games after school until dinner time. It is at the beginning of World War II and Hitler's rise to power. Segregation and racism is alive and well in the United States at that time. The children love playing together regardless of their race. Just like any child, they have a lot of questions about why people act the way they do. The narrator of the story goes to a movie with his Dad sitting in the colored section and having to enter through the back door even though they paid the same amount as the white people did. He sees Jesse Owens a black track star at the Berlin Olympics in Berlin. He watches as Jesse Owens wins gold medals over and over. He realizes that Hitler's ideas are wrong because Jesse Owens a black athlete has beaten all his Arian white athletes. It motivates him to continue standing up for his equal rights.
James does an amazing job with the illustrations they are incredibly details and enchanting. I think they are done with oil pastels and are very life-like. The story just kind of stopped. I needed another page or two. It also had a rough start for me. I did like the perspective of a black American during World War II curious about Hitler. It's a perspective I haven't seen before.
Emilee-Teacher Librarian
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