ALA Booklist

Alfa Merryfield has a bad case of what he calls the Alabamy bus-rider blues. The year is 1956 and the black community in Montgomery, inspired by Rosa Parks, is boycotting local buses, determined to challenge white supremacy and change the System. But this is only one of Alfa's problems: his family--sister Zinnia and great-grandmother Mama Merryfield--also has a bad case of rent money blues. The end of the month is near, and someone has been stealing from the family's meager savings. When Alfa and his family are themselves subsequently accused of stealing money from a wealthy doctor, the mystery deepens and the boy decides to solve the puzzle by using the scientific method. Ultimately, the easily resolved mystery is less compelling than Robinet's quietly dramatic, often poignant re-creation of the early days of the civil rights movement and Alfa's growing determination to put up his dukes nonviolently in defense of his family's dignity. (Reviewed May 1, 2000)

Horn Book

This historical novel focuses on an African-American family--Alfa, his sister, and their great-grandmother--as they struggle to make ends meet during the Montgomery bus boycott. Alfa and his sister must also solve the mystery of their disappearing rent money and absolve themselves of a false robbery charge. Occasional jarring instances of modern dialogue and terminology are a minor distraction.

Kirkus Reviews

Social issues, civil-rights history, adventure, and mystery are all skillfully combined in this gripping story of 12-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his sister Zinnia, and their great-grandmother Lydia. Setting her story in Montgomery, Alabama, during the summer of 1956, when the bus boycott precipitated by Rosa Parks is already six months old and racial tensions are high, Robinet ( Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule , 1998, etc.) has created richly delineated characters and conveyed a strong sense of time and place from the perspective of two African-American children who are deeply involved in it all. In addition to the larger social issues, Alfa and Zinnia face other, more personal and immediate problems. Lydia's mind has started to wander, and the rent money that the three have struggled to gather for their tar-paper shack each month has been mysteriously disappearing from its hiding place. Even worse, the three are accused of stealing money from the big yellow house they are hired to clean. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for nonviolent resistance, and his admonishment that "justice delayed is justice denied," Alfa and Zinnia work tirelessly and ingeniously to solve both mysteries. Elements that add even more depth and suspense to the story include questions concerning the children's "phantom mother," who left them with Mama Merryfield when they were three-and-a-half years and six months old, and who has never been seen or heard from since; the secret signals and signs of solidarity that are exchanged behind the backs of white people; and the constant tension and brutality of an unequal and racist world—tensions and brutality that are exacerbated as the old order begins to crumble. Robinet has succeeded admirably in conveying all of this and more in a way that young readers will be able to understand, all the while telling a story that will keep them turning the pages. (Fiction. 8-12)

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Six months into the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956, resourceful 12-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his older sister Zinnia, and his devoted grandmother, Big Mama, walk everywhere, pooling their meager wages to pay the rent on their tar-paper home. When their money begins disappearing, the siblings are determined to solve the mystery and to keep their home. Struggling to make ends meet, they take a house-cleaning job that leads to accusations of theft. Persevering and observant, Alfa solves this second mystery, confronts the white establishment with the truth, and saves his home. In the process, he discovers that financial and domestic troubles can be found in the homes of whites as well as "coloreds." He also discovers that his own estranged, drug-addicted mother has been secretly extorting their precious rent money from Big Mama. Local echoes of the civil-rights era permeate the story. Alfa feels the pain of injustice when white boys steal his wages, his longtime grocery-store boss fires him for being implicated in a theft, and guards threaten and beat him for attempting to use the local library. And yet, with idealism and personal conviction, he rises above these abuses and proves to himself and the "System" that through nonviolence and persistence, truth can prevail. Despite the emphasis on racial inequities, both black and white characters are shown as vulnerable and capable of change. Ingredients of mystery, suspense, and humor enhance and personalize this well-constructed story that offers insight into a troubled era.-Gerry Larson, Durham School of the Arts, NC Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.