ALA Booklist (Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

Based on interviews with many participants as well as a wide array of published sources, Walker's day-by-day account of the struggle to integrate Little Rock's Central High School in 1957 offers readers an authoritative review of events as well as an engrossing narrative that highlights the episode's high emotions, its historical significance, and the courage of those nine intrepid students and their supporters. The author includes a harrowing look at the continuing harassment that the Little Rock Nine and their families suffered well beyond the next year, then closes with an overview epilogue, a civil rights time line, and a set of postscripts for major figures. Illustrated with an array of news photos and yearbook portraits, and distinguished from most other versions documenting these events by its tempered treatment of the usually villainized Arkansas governor, Orvel Faubus, this thought-provoking study makes an excellent alternative for younger or less-able readers to Judith Bloom Fradin's more detailed The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine (2004).

School Library Journal (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

Gr 5-8 This thoroughly researched and carefully documented look at a pivotal civil rights battle offers fresh insights into the people and events that played out over the course of one school year. What motivated nine black teenagers, commonly referred to as "the Little Rock Nine," to integrate an all-white school in Little Rock, AR, in September 1957 is presented along with the politics of the community, the state, and the nation. The book begins as Elizabeth Eckford prepares for what she believes will be the first day at her new high school and ends nine grueling months later when Ernest Green, the only senior in the group, graduates. Specific students, teachers, members of the military, and other adults are identified and where possible quoted either from primary sources or from background interviews by the author. An introduction by Terrence J. Roberts, PhD, one of the nine students, adds further credence to the material. Carefully selected archival photographs support and clarify the text. An epilogue describes Little Rock's ongoing school integration efforts. An annotated time line of the Civil Rights Movement, selected postscripts on key participants, and quote sources complete this thought-provoking and handsome book. Carol S. Surges, McKinley Elementary School, Wauwatosa, WI

Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

This book focuses on the bravery of the first nine African American students to attend Little Rock's Central High School and on the people who supported them. A history of segregation provides background. The firsthand accounts and recollections in addition to many archival photographs enhance the main text, bringing immediacy to the students' stories. Timeline. Bib., ind.