Starred Review Ten minutes before Ruby Bridges' legendary (and well-documented) 1960 walk into another New Orleans elementary school, Black six-year-olds Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne integrated the Ninth Ward's McDonogh No. 19 Public School. With insights from the three changemakers, Coretta Scott King Author Award winner Nelson (The Book Itch, 2015; Let Er Buck! 2019) offers notable specifics about that integration rooted in the innocence of the students' recollections. Nelson also captures the historic impact of the "McDonogh Three" through their adult reflections on that lonesome yet unifying process and their later school experiences, including unrelenting cruelty they experienced as targets of white bigots. The second half of the book, including extensive back matter, is somewhat text-dense, but this duality extends its reach to upper elementary use. As usual, Nelson does her research and includes interviews with all three women plus the widow of a beloved U.S. Marshal, photographs, and more. Bostic invokes the school's brown paper window coverings as a moving background for glorious acrylic portraiture featuring violets and purples that summon feminism and the threesome's status as civil rights royalty. Particularly luminous, illustrative details include the textured folds of the girls' school dresses and the clutch of their hands. A welcome spotlight on the undersung history of three girls whose bravery and endured torment carved a path for generations.

Micheaux Nelson and Bostic’s information-packed picture book examines an overlooked story of civil rights that occurred across town from the school where Ruby Bridges would become the public face of school desegregation on Nov. 14, 1960. On the same day, New Orleans first graders Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost, and Leona Tate entered McDonogh No. 19 Public School minutes before Bridges headed into William Frantz Elementary. The book’s well-structured format divides the three girls’ experiences into 10 sections. Via lengthy text, “Covered Windows” and “First Day” contextualize occurrences, including protestors outside their classroom, while “Miss Meyers” and “U.S. Marshals” personalize the figures who accompanied the girls throughout their school days. Art in browns, purples, and golds juxtaposes saturated portraits of the girls with sepia-tone scenes of protesters. This affirming look at “three unlikely leaders in small shoes” who “took great strides” concludes with back matter about desegregation nationwide. Ages 7–11. (Nov.)