Like a lot of people my age and younger, I have trouble trying to imagine what it would've been like to grow up in the South in the 1960s. The injustice, the suffering, the hatred--it's overwhelming to imagine it happening around me. But here comes a book that really puts you right there in the middle and shows you the nitty gritty.

Because Cynthia Levinson's We've Got a Job is told from the perspectives of four real children who lived in Birmingham at the time, it is immediately more visceral and moving than most accounts I've read. If you can put yourself in the shoes of Audrey, Arnetta, James, and Wash, you can have some idea of what you might've thought, said, and done if you'd been there. I think that's the power of this book and it's especially apparent in the book's awesome opening:

"On Thursday morning, May 2, 1963, nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks woke up with freedom on her mind. But, before she could be free, there was something important she had to do. 'I want to go to jail,' Audrey had told her mother. Since Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks thought that was a good idea, they helped her get ready."

Would you go to jail to be free? What if you were just nine years old? Could you be peaceful and passive as your enemies called you names and threatened you? Would you pick yourself up and try again after multiple defeats?

This book just slays me because it's so inspirational and heartbreaking at the same time. For every win, there's a terrible loss. For every step forward, there's also a push back. We have this in teen non-fiction, but I think kids as young as 5th, maybe 4th, grade would be absorbed by the stories of the people in this book, especially the children.

Children are the heroes in this story. When Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Shuttlesworth were trying to fill the jails of Birmingham in peaceful protest, they couldn't get enough adults to volunteer for the cause. The grown-ups were afraid of losing their jobs and weren't sure protesting was the smartest way to go. The kids, however, valiantly risked life and limb to demand equal treatment. They marched and went to jail in the thousands. They endured racist taunts, fire hoses, attack dogs, and other violence. They made a difference.

The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because there were a few times I found the narrative confusing. The author would refer back to a character I didn't remember or jump around in time in a way that didn't make sense to me. Ultimately, it's a well-written, powerful book that I'll be happy to recommend this coming school year.
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Thankfully, you can't grow up in Birmingham without learning quite a bit about the Civil Rights Movement. We're especially well-schooled on the string of tragedies and braveries that happened in our city and state.

But somehow, one important piece of information often doesn't come up: the majority of people who were arrested in nonviolent protests in the pivotal year of 1963 were children.

Levinson's book follows the events of 1963 by tracing the activity of four black students who became involved in the nonviolent movement for freedom and civil rights. Reading it in 2013, their courage seems almost unheard-of.

For an inspiring look at local history that changed the country, this is a great read. ( )

Told from the primary point of view of 4 youths in the Children's March, the book may have been better serviced in focusing on one or two perspectives as the primary narrators. There is so much to read and enjoy, but there is such a thing as overload which undermines the beauty of the event, all painstakingly real. ( )

Tells the story of the Children's March in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, from the perspective of 4 adults who were children at the time. An honest, brutal, and uplifting account of the pivotal role of Birmingham's African American children in the Civil Rights Movement.

This book is in a space where there are a lot of existing texts (as there should be) but what it adds is the role of young people as activists in the civil rights movement. I found it particularly interesting that the march on Birmingham happened before Miranda v. Arizona, so these children were often uniformed about their rights. They stood up for what they believed despite their fears. Levinson asks "How often do you get to meet your heroes?" The people in her book are certainly worthy of the title. ( )