Lillian's Right to Vote
A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
An elderly African American woman, en route to vote, remembers her family’s tumultuous voting history in this picture book publishing in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
As Lillian, a one-hundred-year-old African American woman, makes a “long haul up a steep hill” to her polling place, she sees more than trees and sky—she sees her family’s history. She sees the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and her great-grandfather voting for the first time. She sees her parents trying to register to vote. And she sees herself marching in a protest from Selma to Montgomery. Veteran bestselling picture-book author Jonah Winter and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner Shane W. Evans vividly recall America’s battle for civil rights in this lyrical, poignant account of one woman’s fierce determination to make it up the hill and make her voice heard.
"Moving.... Stirs up a potent mixture of grief, anger, and pride at the history of black people’s fight for access to the ballot box." —The New York Times
"A much-needed picture book that will enlighten a new generation about battles won and a timely call to uphold these victories in the present." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"A valuable introduction to and overview of the civil rights movement." —Publishers Weekly, Starred
"An important book that will give you goose bumps." —Booklist, Starred
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Winter (How Jelly Roll Morton Invented Jazz) introduces an elderly African-American woman whose walk up a steep hill to cast her ballot doubles as a metaphor for the struggle for voting rights. En route, miragelike figures from the past appear in the background, including Lillian's great-great-grandparents, shown in shackles at a slave auction. She remembers moments of progress and protest as she walks, such as the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment and the march from Selma to Montgomery, and she also hears echoes of her uncle describing the impossible literacy test questions he was forced to answer at the polls. Winter's prose has a lofty, oratorical quality ("As long as Lillian still has a pulse, she is going to vote and so she keeps on climbing"), skillfully blending Lillian's individual path to the voting booth with the historical context that made it possible. Evans (28 Days) is equally adept at balancing the political and the personal, giving Lillian a stateliness and evident inner strength. A valuable introduction to and overview of the civil rights movement. Ages 5 9.
