Jane Addams Children's Book Award for Older Children (2000), Vermont Golden Dome Book Award Nominee (2001), NCTE Orbis Pictus Award (2000), Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature Nominee (2000), Flora Stieglitz Straus Award (2000)

In November 1960, all of America watched as a tiny six-year-old black girl, surrounded by federal marshals, walked through a mob of screaming segregationists and into her school. An icon of the civil rights movement, Ruby Bridges chronicles each dramatic step of this pivotal event in history through her own words.

-Amazon description

Independent Reading Level: Grades 4-7 ( )

This is an outstanding book that portrays the harsh realities of Ruby Bridges as she traversed the difficult path of integration. The photos depict the ugly scenes of humanity that felt it was okay to threaten a small child. The text magnificently describes the experiences, naivety of childhood, and reality of this time in civil rights. A must read. ( )

This short book chronicles the hardships of school integration from the point of view of Ruby Bridges, the only black child to attend first grade at William Frantz public elementary school as a six-year-old in New Orleans in 1960. Told from Ruby's point of view, with the insights of adulthood, the book is also filled with quotes from other people involved in this story including her teacher and parents. The black and white photographs are powerful.

People surrounded the school in protest throughout the year. Teens chanted "Two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate. Eight, six, four, two, we don't want a chigeroo." White parents pulled their children from the school and at one point only three white children attended Frantz, which normally taught 576 pupils. Ruby wound up being the only child in her classroom for the entire school year and actually didn't know there were any other students for most of the year.

There are so many other details and small background stories, but I don't want to ruin the impact of this book. Just read it. I was angry, sad and proud all at the same time. What a courageous, amazing child/woman. I cried. I am crying again as I write this. And I cannot believe that F-ing racism still exists. ( )