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From School Library Journal

January 13, 2023

Gr 5 Up-Brown started writing and telling stories of her childhood as a young Black girl in Selma, AL, and formed them into this book. These accounts range from the quotidian (receiving a new Christmas bicycle and fighting with her cousin), to powerful recollections of experiencing the greater civil rights struggle as a child (Brown going with her mother to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak and the arrest of her siblings at a protest). These entries are episodic in nature and do not form a cohesive narrative as in a traditional autobiography. While it is mostly effective as an episodic memoir, the compilation can feel disjointed. The prose is casual and lyrical, drawing from the rich tradition of Southern storytelling, speaking, and preaching. Poetry and song lyrics interspersed with the text add depth. There are allusions to violence against protestors and a few incidents that happen outside of the main action, with only the aftermath witnessed and described by Brown. VERDICT This collection of stories sets the Civil Rights Movement in the context of a child's family life, providing insight for modern readers to understand both the movement and the realities of life for African Americans in the Jim Crow South.-Elizabeth Nicolai

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Booklist

January 6, 2023
Grades 5-8 Visual artist Brown turns to the written word, recalling her childhood in the Black community of Selma, Alabama, in the early days of the civil rights movement. In this poignant, episodic, and dialogue-driven memoir, told in her Southern dialect, Brown describes heartfelt memories of her hometown, strong mother, sibling bonds, and the unexpected thrill of meeting Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. ("KANG!") when her mother drags her to church instead of letting her attend a local pep rally with her older sister. Never shying away from the painful realities of the time, she also shares heart-wrenching stories of hatred, violence, and the anger and fear of being a young Black girl with no rights. Brown reiterates how she witnesses Selma on the brink of change; in tandem, readers behold the author in the throes of change, trying to understand the constructs of racism and her family's role in breaking the system. An afterword acknowledges that the latter remains an ongoing process. A thought-provoking, intimate perspective on America's troubled history.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Horn Book

January 1, 2023
Brown, an artist and storyteller, grew up in Selma, Alabama, in the 1950s and 1960s. In her memoir in stories, she focuses on remembrances of 1965 when she was twelve and living through pivotal events of the civil rights movement. Vivid sensory language is the book's great strength. The titular story is a beautiful evocation of time and place: "My Selma was a place that emitted the rich, clean odor of black dirt and sour clay, that smelled of sage and pork sausages, ham, and biscuits...blowing through dew-covered Johnson grass and across foggy highways at five a.m. on any morning." Other stories read more like family tales told around a supper table, contributing to an overall warm narrative about the great beauty and joy that coexisted with the ugliness and pain of racism. Brown's twelve stories confront the prejudice her family faced when moving into a mostly white neighborhood, being called the n-word (spelled out in the book) for the first time, and the terror when white men tried to break into her house. Through it all came a rising protest, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of frustrated and angry residents converged at the Brown Chapel Church and the iconic march from Selma to Montgomery began. In her afterword, Brown says that "hope is in the telling," and her stories offer a strong voice still needed in the ongoing struggle for justice. An excellent match with Elizabeth Partridge's Marching for Freedom (rev. 11/09). Dean Schneider

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Publisher's Weekly

November 28, 2022
Brown's debut is a poignant collection of short stories that chronicles her upbringing in Selma, Ala., during the apex of the 1960s civil rights movement. The opening selection, "My Selma," depicts Brown's hometown as a beautiful place to grow up, populated by preachers, teachers, doctors, and candy store owners who make her life feel rich. Even so, Brown doesn't shy away from painting a picture of a town where "white men and white women rode through Negro neighborhoods in posses," terrorizing residents. Alongside this menacing element, Brown centers familial and community anecdotes, such as her family's buying a home and navigating what their passive-aggressive white neighbor Mr. Randall calls a "changing" neighborhood. White Selma residents' resistance to progress, and the civil rights movement taking place around them, grounds this intimate story in real-life events. By balancing personal struggles with racism with everyday joys of community, family, and resilience, Brown authentically imbues this clear-eyed tale with salient detail and historical resonance. As outlined in an introductory preface, Brown acknowledges that "everyone has his or her memories of a place and time when and where they lived," and that this depiction of Selma is one that she "knew and loved." Ages 10â€"14.

From Kirkus

November 15, 2022
An African American author and artist recounts her compelling story of growing up in Selma, Alabama, during the height of the civil rights movement. Brown, who was born in the early 1950s, the second youngest of five siblings, came of age during a time of tremendous social upheaval. She begins her remembrance of the Selma of her tween years by highlighting the love and mutual support that existed within the Black community. This love is particularly evident in her interactions with her siblings. As well as relating memories of events that made the national news, she shares many touching anecdotes of family, church, and school life. While loved ones tried to shield her from the bitter impact of racism, several incidents she witnessed and experienced with White people in her town juxtapose the two distinct Selmas in existence. She had a front-row seat to the ways many Black residents supported Martin Luther King Jr. and others fighting for civil rights; others thought he was stirring up trouble and wanted nothing to do with protests. Through these stories, readers are introduced to the highs and lows of African American life in the Jim Crow South. Brown uses language effectively to bring the times to life, and emerging from the retelling of her history are portraits of people who shaped her thought patterns and ways of being in her formative years. A panoramic yet intimate depiction of a family experiencing radical social changes. (Memoir. 12-16)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From AudioFile Magazine

Karen Chilton conveys both powerful joy and profound grief in her narration of Willie Mae Brown's stories about growing up in Selma, Alabama, during the Civil Rights movement. Chilton's voice is delightfully dynamic and expressive, evoking the style of an old-school preacher. She whispers, she thunders, she sings, and she weeps as Brown tries to make sense of the powerful events that took place in the segregated South by relaying stories of her youth as she remembers them from her childhood point of view. Listeners will appreciate Chilton's deft touch with the Selma vernacular and her ability to bring the narrative into focus even as the stories skip around in a nonlinear fashion. Brown herself narrates the introduction and afterword with gravitas and warmth. N.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine