With the Might of Angels: The Diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson, Hadley, Virginia, 1954 (Dear America Series)

by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Overview

Coretta Scott King winner Andrea Davis Pinkney brings her talents to a brand-new Dear America diary about the Civil Rights Movement.In the fall of 1955, twelve-year-old Dawn Rae Johnson's life turns upside down. After the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Dawnie learns she will be attending a previously all-white school. She's the only one of her friends to go to this new school and to leave the comfort of all that is familiar to face great uncertainty in the school year ahead. However, not everyone supports integration and much of the town is outraged at the decision. Dawnie must endure the harsh realities of racism firsthand, while continuing to work hard to get a good education and prove she deserves the opportunity. But the backlash against Dawnie's attendance of an all-white school is more than she's prepared for. When her father loses his job as a result, and her little brother is constantly bullied, Dawnie has to wonder if it's worth it. In time, Dawnie learns that the true meaning of justice comes from remaining faithful to the integrity within oneself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545388061
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2011
Series:	Dear America Series
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Andrea Davis Pinkney is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of nearly 50 books for young readers, among them The Red Pencil and A Poem for Peter, as well as several collaborations with her husband, Brian Pinkney, including Martin Rising: Requiem for a King, Sit-In, and Hand in Hand, which received the Coretta Scott King Book Award. Andrea Davis Pinkney lives in New York City. You can follow her on Twitter at @AndreaDavisPink, on Instagram at @Andreapinkney1, and on Facebook at @andreadavispinkey.

Read an Excerpt

From Dear America: With the Might of Angels

This morning when I sat down, Daddy took a break from his breakfast reading. The little smile playing in his eyes told me a surprise was brewing. He looked at me for a long moment. "Happy birthday, Dawnie."

Then he pushed that New York paper under my nose. "Here, child."

He was eager to show me the front page headline. "Clip this for your new diary."

I looked carefully.

Daddy told me to read what I saw. He said, "Speak loud enough to scare some pigeons."

I read slowly, pressing each word into the warm morning air.

Washington - May 17, 1954

High Court Bans School Segregation: 9-to-0

Decision Grants Time to Comply

Seems Mama already knew the news.

Didn't take her but a minute to hand me a pair of scissors from her sewing basket, and a tin of paste from her craft bin.

"Make your birthday book look pretty," Goober said.

Nobody even had to tell me what to do. I knew right off why those scissors and paste brush were suddenly in my hands.

I've carefully glued the headline right here as a memory of the day I turned twelve.

Editorial Reviews

"Funny, determined, and insightful, With the Might of Angels introduces a new generation of kids to an important period in American history. This wonderful fictional character and her real-life heroes will inspire generations to come." — Sharon Robinson, critically acclaimed author of The Hero Two Doors Down"Dawnie is a wonderfully drawn character whose lively and poignant diary entries — including letters to her hero, Jackie Robinson — detail her dreams, fears, frustrations, and achievements, personalizing segregation's and integration's diverse impacts." — Booklist"Outstanding . . . Pinkney paints a vivid picture." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Gr 5–8—In 1954, Dawnie Rae Johnson receives a diary for her 12th birthday. In it, she chronicles the year of her mundane-no-more life. As one of the brightest African-American students at Mary McLeod Bethune School, she is chosen to integrate the previously all-white Prettyman Coburn public school. She is the lone black student, and she is cursed, spit upon, reviled, ignored, and harassed. Dawnie learns to "lock her lips" through all the racism she experiences, leaning on her family, her church, and her community for support. She also plays baseball and writes imaginary letters to Jackie Robinson, asking him what it was and is like to be the first African American in the major leagues. Dawnie finally makes a friend when a Jewish student, equally reviled, moves from New York City to Hadley. The two support each other, becoming two of the best students at Prettyman. Dawnie's journal is realistic, encompassing thoughts and emotions one would expect of someone so stressed. She is protective of her autistic brother and encouraging when her father is dismissed from his dairy job for racial reasons and her mother becomes the sole breadwinner. The author seamlessly incorporates historical events into the child's journal. The end matter contains age-appropriate photographs, a time line, and brief biographical sketches of the people mentioned. A first purchase.—Lisa Crandall, formerly at Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI

School Library Journal

When 12-year-old Dawnie Rae receives a “diary book” for her birthday in June 1954, she eagerly undertakes documenting her life as a future doctor, devotee of Jackie Robinson, and the first student of color at Prettyman Coburn School in Hadley, Virginia. Dawnie’s daily entries bring stark reality to the issue of school integration. Narrator Channie Waites gives immediacy to Dawnie’s life. Waites radiates exuberance as Dawnie dreams of her future; delivers steely voices during each racial confrontation, whether in the science lab or on the front lawn; rails with Dawnie's exasperation at her autistic younger brother, and provides a tone of spunk for Dawnie’s friend, Gertie. In the narrator role, Waites’s words move the story fluidly from episode to episode. Notes on school integration and a chapter in which the author shares her personal experiences relating to integration complete the production. A.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2011 - AudioFile

Coretta Scott King Award–winner Pinkney provides an outstanding contribution to the Dear America series with the diary of the (fictional) first African-American student to integrate the segregated schools of Hadley, Va.

Pinkney paints a vivid picture of a bright 12-year-old who is athletic, fun-loving and full of dreams. She admires Jackie Robinson and is fiercely protective of her autistic younger brother. Shortly after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision is handed down, Dawnie Rae is selected as one of three African-American children who will integrate the Prettyman Coburn school. True to the series' format, the fictional diary entries, chronicle the both events of the primary story arc and fill in telling details of the time and place. Today's readers may well be stunned when Dawnie Rae's Mama and Daddy bluntly tell her the family doesn't have enough money to buy a television, and she goes on to muse about the buying power of the 1954 nickel. While many contemporary accounts of the Civil Rights movement focus on the courage, integrity and character of those who pioneered the struggle, Pinkney does a commendable job imagining both the setting and the inner emotions that ordinary children might have wrestled with as they stepped into history.

A solid entry in an ever-popular series. (historical note, photographs, biographical notes, time line)(Historical fiction. 8-14)

Kirkus Reviews