Ateacher helps her students protest U.S. segregation with sit-ins.

In the 1930s, young Clara Luper notices a “Whites Only” park in her Oklahoma town. Her father, who is crying, promises her that “someday will be real soon,” when segregation will no longer exclude black Americans. Rhuday-Perkovich commendably explains the concept of segregation for young readers, emphasizing that it is “separate and unequal” (printed in bold, like other key points). Grown and become a teacher, Clara stresses that “education meant participation.” Performing a play she wrote in New York City, Clara and her students experience integrated facilities and realize “in some places, someday was now.” Back in Oklahoma City, they decide to combat segregation using the four steps of nonviolence: “investigation, negotiation, education, and demonstration.” During sit-ins at a lunch counter, the young activists’ white friends and neighbors turn to enemies. Johnson uses facial expressions and stains on clothes to effectively convey stress and tension in a manner sensitive to readers unfamiliar with the violence of the civil rights movement. Johnson’s ability to depict great emotion through something as simple as a teardrop is laudable, as is the intentional portrayal of the spectrum of shades found among black people.

Not only does this book highlight an important civil rights activist, it can serve as an introduction to child activism as well as the movement itself. Valuable. (author’s notes, glossary) (Picture book/biography. 5-9)

-Kirkus Review

This is a lovely picture book history of Clara Luper. This is a bit longer and meant more for kids in school rather than bedtime reading. It is interesting and entertaining and a great way to learn of a figure in American history. ( )

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book. I liked how Clara Luper became a teacher because of the lack of structure and equality there was in her education. I also liked how the mentality involved from "someday is soon" to "someday is now" because it reminds me to seize the moment and do everything I can to accomplish what I envision in my life.
Someday Is Now is a book about Clara Luper and her life and role in the Civil rights movement. It starts off when she is a little girl and everything is separate and unequal like not being able to play in the nice white person park or having a crummy school where the teacher also served as the janitor and principal too. It fast-forwards to her older and working as a teacher and she and the children she teaches put on a play that ends up being recognized by the NAACP and is invited to New York. They get to experience the integration and equality of the northern states but then return to the south after their show(s) are done. She and the students draft a plan to set in motion to lift segregation in public places by sitting in at a local diner and peacefully protesting. They sit in the diner and peacefully protest while doing school and having food and drinks thrown at them by the owner and white patrons. They kept going back day after day until finally a legislation was passed in some states, including Oklahoma, that stated establishments would serve anyone of any race in their establishment. ( )

Painful, but true story of how nonviolent change can occur. The protesting children were nonviolent; not so true about the others. ( )