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Loading... Northbound: A Train Ride Out of Segregationby Michael S. Bandy
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss. ( ) This fictional story, based on the author’s own recollections of taking a train during the era of Jim Crow, describes the experiences of a young African-American boy, named Michael, who travels with his grandmother from Alabama to Ohio in the early 1960s to visit family. As they pass through different states, signs designating certain cars as “whites only” go up and down, depending on the state. When Michael is able to mingle with whites though, he makes a white friend, Bobby Ray, and they immediately bond over shared interests. An Author’s Note at the end of the story gives a short history of laws involving race segregation in railroads. Award-winning illustrator James E. Ransome created lush watercolors to help tell the story. Evaluation: Readers (suggested age is 5 and up) will be able to deduce that the system for segregation was irrational and unfair even though the author doesn’t hammer in this point. It is also clear from the story that who we are and what we like and don’t like is a much more meaningful criterion for friendship than superficial skin color. no reviews | add a review
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When Michael and his grandmother board a train for his first train ride, the conductor directs them to the "colored only" section. But when the train pulls out of Atlanta, the signs come down, and a boy from the "whites only" section runs up to Michael, inviting him to explore. How come Michael can go as he pleases in some states, but has to sit in segregated sections in others? Based on author Michael S. Bandy's own recollections of taking the train as a boy during the segregation era, this story of a child's magical first train trip is intercut with a sense of baffling injustice, offering both a hopeful tale of friendship and a window into a dark period of history. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)305.8009730904Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Groups of people Ethnic and national groups ; racism, multiculturalism General Biography And History North America United StatesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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