Independent Reading Level(Grades 3-5)

This book focuses on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Full-color art and an engaging question-and-answer format help children learn what it was like to participate in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, stage a sit-in at a lunch counter, join the famous March on Washington, and more.

When did the civil rights movement begin? Were children involved in civil rights protests? What was the March on Washington? This book tells you what it was like during the exciting era when Martin Luther King led the fight against segregation.

If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King is a great informational book that give the reader perspective on what it was like to live during the Jim Crow era of the US, and the milestones of the civil rights movement. It also touches on some of the important figures like MLK and Malcom X with some sort biographies. I like this book because it gives the reader reasons and effects for different aspects of segregation. Each page starts with a question like, "What was segregation?". It then answers it in 1-4 paragraphs accompanied by some illustrations. I also like how there is a timeline in the back of the book. The book shows the reader that there was a whole different world they never experienced, and a lot of people how paved the way for freedom today. ( )

If you lived at the time of Martin Luther King Jr, you would know that black people were brought to America from Africa as slaves. In 1800 there were about 4 million slaves who lived and worked in the south. At the end of the civil war the slaves were freed and many people thought that black Americans would then be treated equally and fairly. Segregation was a whole way of that whites setup to keep blacks and whites seperated. Martin Luther King was born in 1929 and was born into a segregated world. He grew up in the city of Atlanta Georgia. Blacks and whites didn’t go to the same schools and black children had fewer books, few teachers, few supplies, and run-down buildings. The only time blacks and whites were able to play together was when the children was little. Everything in the south was segregated including water fountains. For many years the city, state, and federal governments said nothing was wrong with segregation. One day this woman named Rosa Parks was coming home from work and was riding the bus to get to her house then, this white man got on and all the seats were taken so the bus driver said to Rosa Parks to get up so the man could sit. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. Rosa Parks then got arrested and everyone heard on the radio about what happened and blacks stopped riding the bus. Many blacks joined together to boycott the bus system to force the city to improve laws that gave blacks equal riding rights.

I choose this book because the book discuss black history and it is a good book to read about because it talks a lot about how blacks had to live segregated. I gave it my rating because it was an interesting book and talked about how blacks didn’t give up and how they fought back to the people that were treating them wrong. I also like Martin Luther’s famous speech I Have a Dream and how he said I have a dream that my 4 girls will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin. ( )