March Forward, Girl

Starred review from November 13, 2017
In a visceral and vital memoir, journalist and activist Beals (Warriors Don’t Cry), who integrated Central High School as one of the Little Rock Nine, recounts growing up African-American in 1940s Arkansas “under the umbrella of the rules and traditions of my oppression.” Her grandmother encouraged Beals to trust in God, but the Ku Klux Klan members who marauded their streets by night filled her with constant dread. Beals’s rage at the injustice permeating her daily life—and what she perceived as black adults’ passive compliance—led her to ask, “Why not fight back?” Chilling examples of violence underscore the traumatizing environment: at age five, Beals witnessed Klansmen hang a man from church rafters during a prayer meeting, and as a teen she barely escaped rape after being unwittingly brought to a KKK gathering. Beals writes openly about her feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, though her courage and resolve are just as evident. It’s a no-holds-barred reflection of the physical and psychological toll that prejudice, discrimination, and hate take on a young life. Ages 10–up. Author’s agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Lori Nowicki, Painted Words.

December 1, 2017

Gr 6 Up-Now in her seventies, Beals recalls growing up in Little Rock, AR, before she became one of the Little Rock Nine, an experience she penned earlier in Warriors Don't Cry. In this latest, Beals describes how as early as age three, she questioned the fear and constant oppression of black people by whites and the U.S. legal system. "I sensed from the very first moment of consciousness that I was living in a place where I was not welcome." Beals remembers such indignities as being locked for hours in a pantry by her grandmother's white employer, and being besieged by angry police while using a department store bathroom for whites as her grandmother begged forgiveness. She also details a horrifying episode when Ku Klux Klan members barged into her church service, barricaded the doors, and lynched a congregant from the church rafters. As a preteen, Beals narrowly escaped being raped by Klan men who found her alone alongside the road and drove her to a gathering in the woods. These horrendous experiences, contrasted with the love and support of her family and community, shaped Beals's determination to volunteer for the integration program that would cement her legacy as a beacon of civil rights. An epilog provides a synopsis of the Little Rock Nine, and black-and-white childhood photos and illustrations by Morrison appear throughout. VERDICT Beal's recollection of white oppression and her rise above it will haunt readers. A must-read for teens. -Vicki Reutter, State University of New York at Cortland

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2017
One of the Little Rock Nine describes her childhood in the years leading up to the 1957 event.Beals' moving adult memoir, Warriors Don't Cry (1994), painted a harrowing portrait of her experience as one of the African-American students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here she shares her memories of growing up in the segregated South and what led her to challenge Jim Crow laws. She describes a warm, loving family environment where church and education were highly valued. These positives are not always enough to outweigh the darkness she feels from witnessing and experiencing racism from whites in stores or even those doing business in and around her home. There are episodes involving the Ku Klux Klan and even the lynching of a family acquaintance, experiences that leave Beals with a desire for justice and an abhorrence of the treatment of blacks at the hands of whites. When she is among those chosen to integrate Central High School, the determination she needs has been building for years. This narrative is told in a conversational tone, full of personal stories and remembrances. Beals pinpoints clearly the injustices and pain of her early years and shows how they prepared her for the challenges of making history, intertwining these stories with more personal coming-of-age recollections. Archival photographs and Morrison's drawings punctuate the pages. (Final art not seen.)A valuable addition to the stories of life in Jim Crow America. (Memoir. 10-16)

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January 1, 2018
Grades 5-8 Beals (Warriors Don't Cry, 1995) wastes no time getting into the deep, choking horror of living under Jim Crow in 1940s and 1950s Arkansas. Likening her fear of white people to an ever-growing monster consuming her nights, she reflects on how the Ku Klux Klan rode through her black neighborhood, plucking friends and neighbors from their homes to be lynched for minor infractions of the codes or for fun. That fear morphed into anger and motivation to find a way out, eventually helping her to become one of the Little Rock Nine. Beals has a way with short, powerful sentences that efficiently capture her roiling emotional inner life. She also outlines the interplay of racism and sexism in a harrowing recounting of the time she was herself a target of the Klan. The narrative stops short of the integration of Little Rock Central High School, featuring it instead in the epilogue. Young readers will be gripped by Beal's personal courage and determination to march forward for civil rights at such a young age.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2018
As one of the Little Rock Nine, Beals helped integrate Central High School in 1957; here she recounts the childhood years that led up to that important step (described in the epilogue). Fear was a constant, as she learned early that "the color of my skin framed the entire scope of my life." Beals's account is made even more immediate by photographs and Morrison's child-friendly black-and-white illustrations.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 1, 2018
Beals, author of the adult memoir ?Warriors Don't Cry, received the ?Congressional Gold Medal for her bravery in helping to integrate Central High School in 1957 as one of the Little Rock Nine; here she recounts the childhood years that led up to her determination to take that important step. Fear was a constant, as she learned very early that the color of my skin framed the entire scope of my life. Beals vividly relates the many incidents that caused her to be afraid: the Ku Klux Klan would ride through her Little Rock neighborhood; Mr. Waylans's grocery story was a place of constant humiliation; signs everywhere told her NO COLOREDS; and even church could become a place of terror (she witnessed a lynching inside her church at age five). Melba was a reader, curious about the world she was growing into. I wanted to find out where the permission came from that allowed [whites] to treat us as badly as they did now. So she read about Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Jackie Robinson, and Rosa Parks, and this history helps provide context for her personal story. Beals's account, made even more immediate by the addition of photographs and Morrison's child-friendly black-and-white illustrations, stops as she is poised to integrate Central High School at age fifteen. An epilogue recounts that harrowing story; back matter tells of the safe haven she eventually found with a white family in California after the Klan offered a bounty for each member of the Little Rock Nine, dead or alive. dean Schneider

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)