Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Just when you thought you knew that Rosa Parks sparked what later came to be known as the Civil Rights Movement in December, 1955, Phillip Hoose cracks open the previously almost silent vault of Claudette Colvin.  Divided into two parts to encompass Colvin’s two major efforts to fight injustice as a teen, Hoose gives us Colvin’s voice, along with his own narrated tale, engaging and brief sidebars, and historical photographs.  Adolescent readers may be intrigued to learn of Colvin’s arrest and placement in an adult jail, her meetings with Rosa Parks before Parks made history, and her subsequent experiences as a pregnant teen. Readers will never see Parks in the same way again.  Backmatter in the paperback edition includes an epilogue, afterword, interview, bibliography, notes, acknowledgements, photo credits and an index, all of which help the reader see this work of non-fiction as a well-documented inquiry project.  A riveting, inspiring non-fiction read, this book will be of interest to social studies and ELA teachers alike, as well as their students. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Social Studies teachers may be interested in these lesson plans developed by The State of Rhode Island and librarians may want to familiarize themselves with this pathfinder from Eduscape’s website.

Hoose, Philip.  Claudette Colvin:  Twice Toward Justice.  New York: Macmillan, 2009. Print.