The target audience of this story is children ages 8-10. The language is simple, and meant to teach a simple history of African American civil rights. The story starts with a very old black woman, Lillian, at the bottom of a steep hill on voting day. The hill is a metaphor for how many uphill battles African Americans have had to fight for the right to vote in the United States. Lillian is 100 years old, and she remembers that her great-great grandparents were sold at a slave auction at the same courthouse in Alabama where she now is planning to vote. As she walks up the hill, Lillian sees the history of her facility right in front of her. She sees her great-grandpa Edmund picking cotton as a slave, or her grandpa, Isaac, who is denied to vote at the same courthouse with a poll-tax. She then sees her uncle Levi turned away from voting because he can’t pass the test they gave him to register. With questions like ‘How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?’ and ‘Name all sister-seven judges in the state of Alabama’, Lillian’s uncle never had a chance. Lillian then recalls her parents trying to vote in 1920, but an angry mob of racist whites scare them away. They then burn a cross out on their lawn. She then recalls herself trying to register to vote before, and the registrar’s office made her write down a section of the U.S. Constitution word for word. She couldn’t do it, and was denied the right to register. She remembers a man who died in a peaceful march for rights, and she remembers the Selma march to Montgomery only months before today. She remembers the second march from Selma, with Martin Luther King Jr. But then she remembers President Lyndon Baines Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act. She remembers everyone before her. She steps into that courthouse, steps into the ballot box, and votes.
This book’s strength is its inspiring nature. Despite the uphill crime for African American rights, Lillian does what no-one in her family has done before her. Its awesome an inspiring to read this story. Another strength in this book is its historically informative. It mentions and defines the practical applications for several monumental laws and amendments in U.S. history, including the 15th Amendment, the 19th Amendment, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I cannot think of a single weakness of this book, I loved it. I would recommend this book to any young reader, or any teacher that teaches young children. The illustrations are beautiful and take the reader in a walk through history. My favorite read of the year!
- Goodreads rating – 4.37
- REVIEW – Dane Hill