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From Booklist

Starred review from January 1, 2023
Grades 7-10 *Starred Review* This memoir records the experiences of Carlotta Walls LaNier, one of the Little Rock Nine. In 1957, she and eight other Black students integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, despite fierce vocal and sometimes violent opposition by segregationists. Initially, the Nine could not enter the school because the governor had ordered the National Guard to keep them out. President Eisenhower sent in troops from the 101st Airborne to ensure that the nine students could enter the building and attend classes. The Nine were not protected from other students harassing them between classes by bumping, kicking, punching, spitting, and shoving. Outside of school, racist attacks became increasingly violent. LaNier's home was bombed one night in 1960, but she returned to school and graduated. Decades later, she began speaking to students about her experiences. Adapted for young readers from LaNier's A Mighty Long Way (2009), this book records her experiences and emotions as well as her admiration and gratitude for her parents and for civil rights activist Daisy Bates, who advised the Black students, mentored them, and acted as their spokesperson. LaNier offers a well-organized, vividly detailed, and often riveting account of everyday courage and tenacity in the midst of the twentieth-century civil rights movement.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From School Library Journal

Starred review from December 1, 2022

Gr 5 Up-"Why am I just learning about this now?" a student asked Carlotta Walls LaNier when she was speaking about her experience as one of the Little Rock Nine. The 1957 integration of Black students into an all-white high school (a result of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education desgregation order issued by the Supreme Court) was a challenging and daunting time, but the nine students who took that risk made history and broke barriers for future Black children. This book conveys all the emotions and ups and downs Walls LaNier and her friends, family, and community endured. The Little Rock Nine thought going to a new, well-known school in Arkansas would be a great opportunity and open more doors for their future. Instead, they endured mental and physical violence daily from both students and adults in the community. Alongside its incredible historical value, teachers could use this title to teach empathy and respect; it's what all students deserve at any school. VERDICT A compelling account of one of the Little Rock Nine, and the first Black woman to graduate from Central High School. A must-purchase for nonfiction collections and required reading for U.S. history classes.-Cassandra Bland

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Kirkus

Starred review from October 15, 2022
The youngest member of the Little Rock Nine faces ghosts from her past to share her story of school integration. Carlotta Walls grew up in Arkansas in a loving, supportive Black community. In 1957, as a ninth grader at Dunbar Junior High, she added her name to a roster of students willing to integrate Little Rock Central High, which was noted for its excellent education and facilities. However, she and other volunteers faced countless obstacles: The White school superintendent held a meeting with the Black students to let them know that they could not participate in extracurriculars or school social events. The governor sent the Arkansas National Guard to block their entrance. Even after being escorted to school by military troops sent in by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the teens were physically assaulted and verbally harassed by classmates. Segregationists in Little Rock targeted the livelihoods of the Black students' parents, and Carlotta's home was bombed. Despite all these obstacles, she graduated, went to college, and became a realtor, Colorado AIDS Project board member, and president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation, which has a college scholarship program. This highly personal story brings the time period to life, giving readers an inside view of what it meant to be a nonviolent participant in integration and exploring how laws have been used to heal or harm citizens. The clear voice shares intimate stories that are clearly contextualized within larger societal events. A compelling and necessary account of facing and surviving injustice. (Nonfiction. 10-16)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Library Journal

Starred review from August 15, 2009
Much has been written about the integration of Little Rock Central High School in 195758, but LaNieryoungest of the Little Rock Nineoffers a different perspective as a student who was eager for a good education but never really wanted to be at the center of such a momentous event. Facing abuse from white students, she also avoided the press and shunned attention from supporters. While many of the Little Rock Nine ended up attending school elsewhere, following the closing of all Little Rock high schools for the 195859 school year by Governor Faubus, LaNier returned for her senior year. She survived the bombing of her home, graduated from Central, and left Little Rock intending never to look back (she lives with her family in Colorado and founded a real estate brokerage firm). VERDICT With honest clarity, LaNier acknowledges what Little Rock's African Americans lost because of Central's integration: secure jobs, a strong sense of community, and the special commitment of the well-qualified teachers at black schools. Not until 50 years later was LaNier able to confront her past and embrace her role in civil rights history. An engaging and moving book; highly recommended.Kathryn Stewart, Proquest/Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Booklist

August 1, 2009
In 1957 nine black students integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, triggering a firestorm of violence. LaNier, at 14, was one of the group that came to be known as the Little Rock Nine. Overwhelmed by the hatred she and others faced, as well as the national notoriety and talk of their bravery when they were just teenagers trying to get a good education, LaNier has for nearly 40 years been fairly silent about the experience. When President Bill Clinton honored the nine with the Congressional Gold Medal, LaNier began to tell her own story. In this gripping memoir, she recalls her family history of achievement, her decision to go to Central, the harassment and abuse she suffered, and the disrupted school years as she took correspondence courses and went to school elsewhere. She also recalls the bombing of her familys home and the unjust conviction of a family friend blamed for the bombing.A moving, very personal account of the aftermath of the 1954 Brown decision that began the painful process of desegregation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

From Kirkus

June 15, 2009
Well-crafted look at the wrenching experience of the youngest of the"Little Rock Nine."

In the fall of 1957, three years after Brown v. Board of Education ordered the desegregation of all U.S. public schools, 14-year-old Carlotta Walls (now LaNier) signed up to be among the first black students at previously all-white Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. This na™ve, earnest decision would affect every facet of her life, as well as the lives of her family and neighbors. Coached and encouraged by the local NAACP branch, ten students attempted to attend Central High, only to be turned back by an ugly mob and the Arkansas National Guard, dispatched to encircle the school by staunch segregationist Gov. Orval Faubus. As lawsuits pressed by Thurgood Marshall and other civil-rights lawyers were pursued, President Eisenhower dispatched federal paratroopers to avoid"anarchy" and accompany each of the nine students (one had given up) to their classes."Getting inside Central was just the beginning," remembers the author; now she faced"a brand new struggle: finding a way to survive." The daily abuse, both verbal and physical, caused intense stress; LaNier's memoir vividly depicts the students' and their families' blistering struggles. Faubus illegally closed down all the area high schools during the'58-59 school year ("the Lost Year"), and the violence worsened; Walls' home was bombed. She left Little Rock for college and a career, loath even to mention her involvement for many years. Finding her voice, as she notes, came much later, and this hindsight account suggests that the nation still has not achieved closure about the painful events at Little Rock.

Keenly observed and moving.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

From Publisher's Weekly

June 1, 2009
At 14, Lanier was the youngest of the “Little Rock Nine,” who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1951; she went on to become the first African –American young woman to receive a diploma from the school. Her memoir provides a firsthand account of a seismic shift in American history. She recalls the well-reported violence outside the school and daily harassment and ineffective protection from teachers and guards. Away from school, the Nine were honored and feted, but their parents found their jobs—even their lives—in jeopardy. Lanier’s house was bombed, and a childhood friend, Herbert Monts, was falsely accused and convicted. Monts’s account of his experiences, shared with Lanier, 43 years later, is historically newsworthy. Lanier’s recollections of family history and her relatively pedestrian experiences after high school graduation (graduate school, job hunting, marrying, finding her new home in Denver) lack the drama of her historical moment. In a sense, Lanier didn’t make history, history made her. Her plainspoken report from the front line is, nevertheless, a worthy contribution to the history of civil rights in America.

From AudioFile Magazine

In a respectful, serious tone, Lizan Mitchell narrates the personal story of Carlotta Walls LaNier, one of the Little Rock Nine, who challenged the policy of educational segregation in Arkansas during the Civil Rights movement. Carlotta's story recounts her life from her childhood in Little Rock though the Civil Rights era and all the way to Barack Obama's 2008 election to the highest office in the land. Mitchell's forte is expressing the emotional aspects of the story, especially her struggles to move on from the hate and discrimination she faced during her teen years. The one distraction from the excellent narration is the chapter read by Peter Fernandez. Since Mitchell reads the rest of the story on her own, including all the quotes, it's surprising to suddenly hear Fernandez's voice. Furthermore, the switch seems unnecessary. E.N. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine