Night on Fire - Hardcover

Kidd, Ronald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807570249 ISBN 13: 9780807570241

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company, 2015

Synopsis

Thirteen-year-old Billie Simms doesn’t think her hometown of Anniston, Alabama, should be segregated, but few of the town’s residents share her opinion. As equality spreads across the country and the Civil Rights Movement gathers momentum, Billie can’t help but feel stuck--and helpless--in a stubborn town too set in its ways to realize that the world is passing it by. So when Billie learns that the Freedom Riders, a group of peace activists riding interstate buses to protest segregation, will be traveling through Anniston on their way to Montgomery, she thinks that maybe change is finally coming and her quiet little town will shed itself of its antiquated views. But what starts as a series of angry grumbles soon turns to brutality as Anniston residents show just how deep their racism runs. The Freedom Riders will resume their ride to Montgomery, and Billie is now faced with a choice: stand idly by in silence or take a stand for what she believes in. Through her own decisions and actions and a few unlikely friendships, Billie is about to come to grips with the deep-seated prejudice of those she once thought she knew, and with her own inherent racism that she didn’t even know she had.

About this title

About the Author:

Ronald Kidd is the author of ten novels for young readers, including the highly acclaimed Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial. His novels of adventure, comedy, and mystery have received the Children's Choice Award, an Edgar Award nomination, and honors from the American Library Association, the International Reading Association, the Library of Congress, and the New York Public Library. He is a two-time O'Neill playwright who lives in Tennessee.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 4–7—Anniston, AL, 1961. The Greyhound buses are the shiniest and most exciting things that ever speed through Billie Sims's small town, and as Billie races them down the hill on her bicycle, she dreams of riding away to freedom, to find excitement. As it turns out, she doesn't even have to ride as far as the bus station to find all of those things and more than she bargained for. The Freedom Riders are coming to town, challenging the "traditions" and the segregationist status quo that Billie is just learning to see and to question, with some help from her neighbors and friends, including firebrand reporter Tom McCall and his photographer son, Grant—as well as her family's longtime maid, Lavender Jones, and Lavender's daughter, Jarmaine. Billie admires the Riders' purpose and strength, and goes to see them hoping to be changed and witness history. History on Mother's Day 1961, though, comes in the form of fire and blood, as people Billie thought she knew become an angry mob that burns the bus and beats the Riders in front of her local grocery store, while she watches along with her good ol' boy father and the Alabama Highway Patrol. The protagonist's direct and courageous response to her new awareness, along with a love of adventure and a new friend, carries her all the way to Montgomery, to the First Baptist Church to hear Dr. King speak. The story is filled with cameo appearances from Dr. King, Reverend Abernathy, Diane Nash, and other well-known names of the civil rights movement, but Billie and Jarmaine are more than bystanders. "After a lifetime of watching, [she] decided to ride." The story focuses on the events of the day, but also on Billie's growing understanding of her own internalized racism and racial blindness, which brings the story out of the "we've solved it" past and helps it resonate with children growing up in today's America. Kidd's writing is clear and direct, if not subtle, and he raises many hard questions with nuance and with hope. A brief author's note discusses the historical events in the story and mentions source material and further reading. VERDICT Share this thought-provoking brush-with-history story with fans of Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 (Delacore, 1995) and Sharon Draper's Stella by Starlight (S. & S., 2015).—Katya Schapiro, Brooklyn Public Library

About this edition

• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0807570249
• ISBN 13: 9780807570241
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288