We've Got a Job: the 1963 Birmingham Children's March / Cynthia Levinson /156 pages

This is a wonderful book...beautifully designed, powerfully written, and thematically important.  Nearly every page has a large black and white photo that helps to tell the story as much as the text that with plenty of leading makes the story very approachable.   Levinson sets the story of four young and very different African Americans ages 9 to 15 against the larger backdrop of the Civil Rights movement in the deeply segregated city of Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.  In We've Got a Job, readers discover that it was the students of Birmingham who marched, were hosed, bitten by dogs, and arrested that brought the struggle for freedom to the eyes and ears of the entire nation.  Historical figures including Rev Fred Shuttleworth, Rev Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Shores, Bull Connor, and Sidney Smyer are included.  The author provides the broader story of how both blacks and whites reacted to what was happening in their town.  Well documented, primary resources, great bibliography and extensive index are included.  Fascinating and thoughtful reading.  It will make you believe in the power of one person, even a child, to change everything.  Grades 5-10.