Rufus and his family live in Birmingham. His mom is a widow who is being courted by Paul. Paul becomes Daddy Paul to Rufus and his younger sister Georgia. The family is living in Birmingham in 1963. When an opportunity comes for them to move to an all white neighborhood on the land of the woman who owns the town mine. She's a white woman from Boston and has her own ideas about race relations that don't fit with those of others in the town.
The kids want to get involved with the Children's Crusade that is happening as Martin Luther King Jr comes to town and works with Fred Shuttlesworth to lead some Civil Rights actions. His mom is at first fearful of his involvement, but the whole family gets involved despite risks of arrest. The stakes seem to high for them not to.
A quick, accessible read centered around the protest events in Birmingham in spring 1963. ( )

An African American tween finds a way to contribute to his community’s struggle for an end to segregation.

Eleven-year-old Rufus Jackson Jones Jr. lives in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. Following the death of his father, his mother struggles to provide for their family. Life improves when his mother marries Paul Joe Peele. Daddy Paul, as Rufus and his sister call him, insists that they find a better home than their run-down house. So the family rents a home on the property of Miss Boone, the owner of the mill that employs most of the town—a move that angers some White people in the community, as the other families living on the property are mostly White. The civil rights movement is a major topic of conversation for young and old alike, and Rufus wants to learn all he can. Plans for a march involving Dr. Martin Luther King and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth are in the works, and for the first time, students will march. The first marches result in jail for many but continue to grow until the protestors face police dogs and fire hoses. Moses takes readers inside the movement that saw its youngest become effective challengers to the segregation status quo. Her narrative seamlessly weaves a personal family story with the larger one of the fight for change. Rufus is an engaging, thoughtful narrator whose voice and perspective ring true as he works to make a difference, even disobeying his mother, who is terrified about what might happen. The love and determination of his community are realistically and richly portrayed.

A stirring, cleareyed look at the young people who risked much for social change as they fought for their civil rights. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 9-12)

-Kirkus Review