White Socks Only

White Socks Only

Specifics

APA Citation: Coleman, E., Cohn, S. B., & Geter, T. (1996). White socks only. Morton Grove, IL: A. Whitman. Accessed online from http://www.storylineonline.net/white-socks-only/

Meets EDU 333 Blog Requirement For: Picture Book, Diverse Protagonist, Online materials

Lexile Level: AD630L

Audience: Anybody can read this, however I think to understand the story well, it would be better suited for an audience who was at least in the 3rd grade and with an adult. 

Summary

This story is about a young black girl who sneaked into town by herself, even though her mother says she's not old enough to do any good so she can't go into town. When she gets there, she goes to drink from a water fountain labled "Whites Only". She was in luck, she bent down, slipped off her shoes, and stepped on to drink from the fountain in her white socks. This is when a white man walked up and started yelling at her and taking off his belt to beat her with it. A crowd formed. An older black lady from the young girl's church walked up, took off her shoes and stepped up to the fountain to drink as well. It became a movement, many black folks walked up, took off their shoes to reveal many colors of socks, and drank from the "Whites only" water fountain. In the end, the sign was removed from the water fountain and anybody could drink from it. 

Evaluation

I loved this book. The text was brilliant and beautiful and the illustrations were colorful and appealing to the eye. The author, Evelyn Coleman, uses many literary devices throughout the story such as similie, "His face got as red as fire" and hyperbole "And child was it hot! On that kind of a day a firecracker might light up by itself."

This book has a theme of racism and the young girl ended up taking a stand against it, without even realizing it. Then, many people stood by her and followed her lead, which ended up getting the sign removed. 

This author did a fabulous job, I would absolutely read more of her books. 

Mini Lesson

For this book, we would have a class discussion about racism and the civil rights movement.