{"id":43400,"date":"2024-04-06T22:19:31","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T02:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43400"},"modified":"2024-04-06T22:19:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T02:19:31","slug":"review-of-my-selma-by-willie-mae-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43400","title":{"rendered":"Review of My Selma, by Willie Mae Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My Selma<\/p>\n

True Stories of a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement<\/em><\/p>\n

by Willie Mae Brown<\/p>\n

Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2023. 230 pages.
\nReview written July 31, 2023, from my own copy sent by the publisher<\/p>\n

In My Selma<\/em>, debut author Willie Mae Brown tells stories from her childhood, where she lived with her big family in Selma, Alabama. She was a child at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, so she gives us stories of what it was like to find out about those events from a child\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

The stories are a little on the rambling side, and I\u2019m not quite sure about how they\u2019re organized \u2013 they don\u2019t seem to be chronological. But that does give them the authentic feel of childhood memories. Some of them are stories about blatant racism \u2013 especially when her brother and sister were jailed for a week after being part of a peaceful protest. Others are just stories of being a kid in a big, loving family \u2013 like the year she wanted a baby doll for Christmas and then got so excited about her new bike, she didn\u2019t open all the presents.<\/p>\n

The book isn\u2019t long, and it pulls you into these stories of a child who was witness to some events and people that shook the world.<\/p>\n

As the author says in the Preface:<\/p>\n

I write these stories of a Selma that I knew and loved. My own Selma. A Selma that brought me joy, troubled me, and baptized me into racial injustice and into the race for justice. I write these stories through the voices of people who lived at the time when I was growing up in Selma. We lived together, schooled together, played together, churched together, and fought together for the same rights as our white brethren who denied us the freedoms we were born with\u2026.<\/p>\n

I write about Selma because our lives have historical precedence in shaping the future. I write so that you may hear, see, smell, and feel the injustice of ignorance but also the sweetness of everyday life, illuminated in my words.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And yes, you\u2019ll find things both serious and sweet in these pages, all maintaining a child\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

Williemaebrown.com<\/a>
\nMackids.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Nonfiction\/my_selma.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Selma True Stories of a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement by Willie Mae Brown Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2023. 230 pages. Review written July 31, 2023, from my own copy sent by the publisher In My Selma, debut author Willie Mae Brown tells stories from her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43400"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43570,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43400\/revisions\/43570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}