The Story of Ruby Bridges

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for volumes two and three of the five-volume work CHILDREN IN CRISIS, Robert Coles is the author of many distinguished books for adults. A research psychiatrist at Harvard University, Dr. Coles lives outside Boston, Massachusetts.

George Ford has illustrated many acclaimed books for children, including RAY CHARLES by Sharon Bell Mathis, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, and PAUL ROBESON by Eloise Greenfield, winner of the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. Mr. Ford lives with his wife and daughter in Brooklyn, New York.

Ruby Bridges was the sole African American child to attend a New Orleans elementary school after court-ordered desegregation in 1960. Noted research psychiatrist Coles tells how federal marshals escorted the intrepid six-year-old past angry crowds of white protestors thronging the school. Parents of the white students kept them home, and so Ruby "began learning how to read and write in an empty classroom, an empty building." Although there are disappointingly few words from Ruby herself, Coles's use of quotes from her teacher adds to the story's poignancy ("Sometimes I'd look at her and wonder how she did it.... How she went by those mobs and sat here all by herself and yet seemed so relaxed and comfortable"). The story has a rather abrupt ending; the concluding page reprints the prayer that Ruby said daily, asking God to forgive the protesters. Coles cursorily finishes the tale of Ruby's unsettling year in an afterword (two boys and then the rest of the students returned to school; the mobs dispersed by the time Ruby entered second grade). Ford (Bright Eyes, Brown Skin; Paul Robeson) contributes affecting watercolors that play up Ruby's moral courage. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.