Birmingham, 1963

Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2007. Birmingham, 1963. Pennsylvania: Wordsong.

Summary

This story is written in free verse. It tells the story of a fictional girl on her 10th birthday. The story is told through the eyes of this ten year old girl. The story is fictional but the history is correct. It is the story of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young girls. In this fictional account the ten year old girl is going through the motions of a normal day. She gets up, gets ready for church, she is excited about turning ten, and then in the blink of an eye everything changes. In the church that she is attending a bomb goes off and four innocent children are killed.

Impressions

This is one of the most moving free verse books I have ever read. I don't know how anyone could read this without crying. The simple black and white pictures with splashes of red on each page are extremely moving. At the end of the book there is a beautiful tribute to the four girls who were killed in this tragedy.

Reviews

School Library Journal( December 01, 2007 ; 1-59078-440-5 ) "Gr 4-8-In understated free verse, an unnamed, fictional girl narrates the events that preceded the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The book includes a section called "in memoriam" in which the four young girls who died in the bombing are profiled. The author's note provides additional historical background, and the end matter includes a list of photo citations. An emotional read, made even more accessible and powerful by the viewpoint of the child narrator."-Jennifer Ralston, Harford County Public Library, Belcamp, MD Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Booklist( September 15, 2007 ; 1-59078-440-5 ) In free verse, a fictional 10-year-old tells of actual events leading up to the Ku Klux Klan bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963, and of the four young girls who died in the explosion."--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2007 Booklist