34. The Story of Ruby Bridges

Title: The Story of Ruby Bridges
Author: Robert Coles
Illustrator: George Ford
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Copyright Date: 1995
Number of Pages: 27
Reading Level: 9+
Genre: Autobiography

Summary
Ruby Bridges was a little girl who was growing up in a time when white children and black children didn’t go to the same schools. A judge ordered that four black girls go into white schools and Ruby was one of them. She went to a school all by herself when she was only six years old. Her family went to church and they prayed that everything would be all right for Ruby. When Ruby went to the school there were angry white people outside in crowds and they were rude and called Ruby names. They didn’t want a black child to go to the same school as their kids. The local police said that they wouldn’t help protect Ruby so federal marshals were called in to make sure that she was safe. Ruby studied hard when she was at school but there were no other children there, the parents made them stay home because they were so angry about Ruby. Ruby’s teacher was impressed with her and didn’t understand how a little girl could be so strong. The teacher wondered if eventually the threats and anger would get to her to the point of her not wanting to go to school anymore. One morning the teacher looked out the window and saw Ruby in the big crowd. It looked like Ruby was talking to them but it was hard to know what was going on because the people were yelling so loudly. Her teacher asked Ruby when she came in what had happened. Ruby explained that every morning she prayed for those people but today she forgot and remembered when she was in front of the school. Ruby said that she repeated this prayer twice a day. Finally white kids are sent back to school by their parents because they are getting into mischief. The parents realized that they were cheating their own kids out of an education.

Recommendation
I would recommend this to kids who are interested in time in American history when African Americans were struggling for their human rights. I think that this will help them to understand the severity of some of the attempts to desegregate schools.

Problems/Conflict
Many people would rather not hear about how colored people were treated in America during the times of desegregation. I glad they didn’t put in any of the names that the white people called Ruby as she passed through the crowds in the morning. This book has a lot of praying and religious contexts.

My Reaction
I wish the story would be a little more elaborate. How did the kids interact with Ruby when they came back to school? I want to know more about Ruby’s life. I was impressed that such a little girl could cause so much confusion, anger and discord. I am also amazed to know that this happened. What a stain on our history of how African Americans were treated when they just wanted basic human rights.