Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: This definitive biography of Rosa Parks accessibly examines her six decades of activism, challenging young readers perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement.

Presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks as the quiet seamstress performed a single act that sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and birthed the modern civil rights movement, Jeanne Theoharis provides a revealing window into Parks' politics and decades of activism. She shows readers how the movement radically sought--for more than a half a century--to expose and eradicate the American racial-caste system in jobs, schools, public services, and criminal justice and how Rosa Parks was a key player throughout. The original text is fully adapted by the award-winning young adult author Brandy Colbert, for middle-grade and young adult readers to include archival images and personal papers of Rosa Parks, and to provide the necessary historical context to bring the multi-faceted, decades long civil rights movement to life. Colbert creates an engaging and comprehensive narrative centered on Parks' life of activism, to encourage readers not only to question where and who their history comes, but to search for histories beyond the dominant narratives.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU. CONTENT WARNING FOR RAPE.

My Review: Author Theoharis's 2014 Image Award-winning adult biography of civil rights icon Rosa Parks has been adapted for younger readers! Brandy Colbert's work for YA audiences has been on Los Angeles Public Library's Best YA Fiction lists, and has won a Stonewall Book Award in 2010. Between these two powerful writers, the project couldn't have been in better hands.

The story of Mrs. Parks's lifetime of struggle against the racial prejudice she was subjected to routinely, and the sexism that all women were subjected to while she was growing up, makes for sobering reading. The fact that both of these issues remain prominent in 2022's US national conversations does not speak well of our ability, as a body politic, to learn from our errors and omissions of thinking.

One of the city’s first responses to the boycott was to portray the problem as the actions of a handful of “bad apple” bus drivers. Officials insisted the problem was not segregation but rude drivers. City leaders said they wished the Black community had approached them sooner with the problem so they could have disciplined these drivers. Of course, this wasn’t true at all. Black people had been highlighting bus segregation that entire year and even before then, and each time, they’d been ignored. But this way, the city was able to blame the issue on a few bad people rather than a rotten system.

Lie, cheat, obfuscate...then lie some more. After all, it doesn't matter if you tell lies when you're Right.

The major issues that Mrs. Parks drew attention to are still present in US society. It really bids fair to wrap one's soul in a fog of despair, sixty-seven years after this brave woman made a stand against being treated as less than, other than, another person simply because of her skin color, and we're facing the same issues over and over again. ( )

Reading The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks: Young Readers Edition by Jeanne Theoharis was a bit of a rollercoaster. At the beginning, I read slowly – just a chapter or two a night – as the hard realities that Rosa and other Black people faced weighed heavy in my mind. As the narrative progressed, I increased my reading as I was fascinated by Rosa and her fight against segregation and racism. Toward the end, my pace slowed again and I felt a bit more disconnected from the story than I previously had.

Growing up, I learned a whitewashed version of history and knew very little about Rosa Parks other than her refusal to give up her seat on the bus. After reading The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, I have a much greater admiration and appreciation for this remarkable woman. Her strength, her demeanor, her love of reading, her spiritual life, her pursuit of justice and equality. All of it inspired me. I’d love to read Mrs. Parks’ books, My Story (autobiography) and Quiet Strength. I imagine those books tell even more of her story as The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks focuses on her experiences with segregation, racism, and activism.

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks: Young Readers Edition is marketed for 7th-9th graders/ages 12-17. However, I learned much from this book as an adult and the writing is not simplified, though I suspect some situations may be less detailed than in the original edition. I felt that Jeanne Theoharis presented the information in this book objectively, except for perhaps a few parts near the end. I recommend this book to ages 12+ and I expect that we will use it as a resource in our homeschool program once my daughters reach middle school. Excellent book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product via the Amazon Vine program. All opinions in this review are my own. ( )

"This adaptation of the 2013 adult biography of the same name explores the life and activism of a civil rights icon before and after the incident that made her famous.

Parks, renowned for her role as the catalyst in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, was born into a close-knit African American family in 1913 Alabama. Like others, her family was deeply affected by the restrictions of the Jim Crow South and the legacies of slavery. As a child, Rosa watched her grandfather defend the family from the Ku Klux Klan. Her marriage to Raymond Parks connected two people with shared senses of identity and activism. They became members of the NAACP despite the danger; Mrs. Parks eventually co-founded their branch’s youth council. She was also active in organizing voter registration and attended leadership training at the Highlander Folk School, where she met others working for justice. By December 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on the bus, Parks was already a seasoned activist, and her community had long been engaged in seeking equality in public transportation. Eventually, she and her husband relocated to Detroit, where she continued her advocacy. This detailed, readable narrative refutes the myth of the accidentally significant historical figure, focusing on the totality of Parks’ life as a champion of full citizenship for African Americans as well as the complexities of struggles against White resistance.

A nuanced exploration of a woman with a lifelong commitment to social change. (bibliography, image credits, index)" A Kirkus starred review, www.kirkusreviews.com