Dear America: With the Might of Angels

by Pinkney, Andrea Davis

• ISBN13: 9780545297059
• ISBN10: 0545297052
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-01
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Summary

Coretta Scott King Honor author Andrea Davis Pinkney brings her talents to a stunning new Dear America diary about school integration. In the spring of 1954, twelve-year-old Dawn Rae Johnson's life turns upside down. After the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Dawnie learns she will be attending a previously all-white school. She's the only one of her friends to go to this new school and to leave behind all that is familiar to face great uncertainty in the school year ahead. However, not everyone supports integration and much of the town is outraged at the decision. Dawnie must endure the harsh realities of racism firsthand, while continuing to work hard to get a good education and prove she deserves the opportunity. But the backlash against Dawnie's attendance of an all-white school is more than she's prepared for. When her father loses his job as a result, and her little brother is bullied, Dawnie has to wonder if it's worth it. In time, Dawnie learns that the true meaning of justice comes from remaining faithful to the integrity within oneself.

Author Biography

Andrea Davis Pinkney is the author of many children's books, including the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book, LET IT SHINE: STORIES OF BLACK WOMEN FREEDOM FIGHTERS; DUKE ELLINGTON, a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor Book; BOYCOTT BLUES: HOW ROSA PARKS INSPIRED A NATION; and most recently the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller, SIT-IN: HOW FOUR FRIENDS STOOD UP BY SITTING DOWN. She lives in New York City, where she also works as a children’s book editor.

Excerpts

From Dear America: With the Might of Angels

This morning when I sat down, Daddy took a break from his breakfast reading. The little smile playing in his eyes told me a surprise was brewing. He looked at me for a long moment. "Happy birthday, Dawnie."
Then he pushed that New York paper under my nose. "Here, child."
He was eager to show me the front page headline. "Clip this for your new diary."
I looked carefully.
Daddy told me to read what I saw. He said, "Speak loud enough to scare some pigeons."
I read slowly, pressing each word into the warm morning air.
Washington - May 17, 1954
High Court Bans School Segregation: 9-to-0
Decision Grants Time to Comply
Seems Mama already knew the news.
Didn't take her but a minute to hand me a pair of scissors from her sewing basket, and a tin of paste from her craft bin.
"Make your birthday book look pretty," Goober said.
Nobody even had to tell me what to do. I knew right off why those scissors and paste brush were suddenly in my hands.
I've carefully glued the headline right here as a memory of the day I turned twelve.