Phillip Hoose

Phillip Hoose is a mighty fine writer. I have almost zero interest in birds and migratory patterns (I get bored just typing "migratory patterns"), but his excellent storytelling pulled me into this book! Hoose charts the annual journey all rufa red knots take, and it's really astounding. Most go all the way from Tierra del Fuego (the very bottom of South America) all the way to the Canadian Arctic. At the same time, the story is made more interesting by Hoose's focus on one particular red show more knot: B95 AKA the Moonbird. B95 is the oldest red knot known to scientists and has flown the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back. Crazy!

The other characters populating this book are the humans involved in the red knot story. Mostly they're scientists and bird enthusiasts, but Hoose also profiles a fisherman whose job is made more difficult by conservationists' efforts in Delaware.

Lots of maps and photographs help make this a really appealing non-fiction pick for readers, especially those in 5th to 8th grade. There's a section in the back about how kids can get involved in the effort to help rebuild the struggling red knot population.

And, finally, when Hoose thanks his wife as the end of the book, he writes, "It is a joy to migrate through life with her." :) show less

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice is an illuminating piece of nonfiction. Phillip Hoose tells the story without condescending, but he also doesn't assume the reader knows anything about his story. As an adult reader, I appreciated the deep background provided in sidebars.

From the first pages, which are largely pictures illuminating life in the South in the era of Jim Crow laws, I was wowed. The book reads almost like a documentary; Hoose uses photos, text boxes, background, newspaper show more text and interviews to paint a vivid picture not only of Colvin's life, but these years in Montgomery, Alabama.

Who is Claudette Colvin? She was a high school girl who refused to give up her seat for a white passenger. She did it nine months before Rosa Parks, and she was arrested. Part of what I love about this book is the honesty, which is at times brutal. Rosa Parks is an American hero, and so many of us growing up being wowed by her bravery. This book takes us back to the way it really happened, which isn't as simple. It's not a nice little story, but it's real. As a librarian firmly in the "teach the truth" camp, I loved this book. Some teachers and parents may react adversely to it. She cooperated with Phillip Hoose, who interviewed her numerous times for this book.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice is an important book. It's a book I found illuminating as an adult reader. It won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. show less

Although less than 150 pages, “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice” is easily one of the best books I have every read about the modern Civil Rights movement. Winner of the 2009 National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature, author Phillip Hoose does a masterful job explaining how Claudette was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus to a white person nine months before Rosa Parks. But for several reasons, Claudette did not receive the show more support of her classmates or friends in the black community, and did not become the face of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. And her name has largely been lost to history – until now.

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, a division of MacMillan, the book is recommended for grades 5 through 12. I could see this book as an outstanding addition to any school social studies library, or the subject of a teacher's social studies unit on the modern civil rights movement. Hoose does his readers so many favors, providing numerous historic photos and other primary sources, as well as first rate definitions and explanation of terms and historic events (including the clearest definition of "Jim Crow" I have ever read).

Hoose convinced Claudette Colvin to let him tell her story for the first time, and tell it he does – giving us both the back story of what happened and why, and letting Claudette fill in the blanks, remembering her own thoughts and feelings at the time in her own words.

Most importantly, this book reminds us once again that the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and early 60s was in large part about young people, fought out in schools and the courts and the streets – from the Topeka 8 to Emmitt Till to Claudette Colvin to Ruby Bridges to the four little girls (Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair) killed by a bomb in a Birmingham church in 1963. And as such, it is critical that the school children of today learn what role the school children of that era played for the freedom of all of us. show less

This is truly an amazing addition to history. Claudette Colvin's story, together with Philip Hoose's historical portrayal, brings new life to the history of African American struggle against racial segregation. We are accustomed to hear the names of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. whenever the Montgomery Bus Boycott comes up in discussions. This book makes us question why we have never heard of Claudette Colvin. I, for one, had never heard of her story before reading this book. As the show more story gradually unravels, we come to discover that it was her example, almost a year earlier than Rosa Parks' demonstration, that sparked the desire for the Boycott. We also learn that she was shunned publicly by the black leaders in the civil rights movement for being too young and for having a light-skinned baby.

As the book presents various facets of the situation in Montgomery of which few today are aware, this book is excellent for young adult readers interested in the civil rights movement. Colvin is presented as an initiator of the spirit of revolt on the buses, while Hoose places her in a long line-up of African American bus rabble-rousers. When history books usually speak of Montgomery, there is usually no mention that there was constant unrest on the buses, or that the bus drivers were given police authority. As the story unfolds, Hoose shows how it was the court decision in Browder v. Gale that eventually ended the year long boycott, and how Colvin's testimony was perhaps the nail-clincher in the case. The case is also admired for its timing: at the moment that the leaders of boycott were arraigned in court to be sentenced for illegal carpooling, the ruling came from the Supreme Court in favor of the four women plaintiffs in the Browder case. Colvin and her attorney Fred Gray were the saving grace of the movement, which would have been a much wearier struggle without their involvement.

Among the many virtues of this book, is having Colvin tell her story in her own words. Each chapter is an interweaving of her story alongside Hoose's historical account. The story highlights the insane violence against the leaders of the civil rights movement, both black and white. At the end of the books we also get Hoose's notes on how he first came across Colvin's story and his mission to bring it to a wider audience of readers. There is also an afterword where Hoose gives Colvin a short interview where he gets her answers to the most common questions she is usually asked by curious readers. This book makes us want to learn more about the Civil Rights movement, as it offers us a more intimate look at what is mostly taken for granted (that there were many involved in protesting the buses, not just the leaders of the civil rights movement). show less