PLANT A SEED AND WATCH IT GROW

Ask any child how do plants grow and they will tell you that they need sunlight and water. While this is true, ask them how change happens and the answer should be the same. That is what Hester Bass, author of Seeds of Freedom feels based on the content of this book. This book introduces young readers to life from 1962-1963 as integration unfolds in Hunstville, Alabama. Readers will learn about how blacks were treated in Huntsville known at that time as the Space Center of the Universe. As rockets took astronauts into space, the cotton fields were sprouting, and blacks begin to peacefully protests segregation; planting seeds of freedom. Many of their efforts yielded no results initially, but as they received more water (support from blacks, whites and even President Kennedy ) and sun (national spotlight on tv and in the papers) the seeds of freedom grew. News of the arrest of women and even babies, protests at lunch counters, and an economic event called Blue Jean Sunday helped blacks in Huntsville be heard. The freedom seeds grew so much that by 1963, six year old Sonnie W. Hereford IV was integrating Fifth Avenue School.

This is a must read. It is full of history and presented in a way that young readers can understand. It teaches about the civil rights movement in Hunstville, and shows just how beautiful a garden can be when it is cultivated together.