Carolyn Phelan (Booklist, Feb. 1, 2005 (Vol. 101, No. 11))
Set in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960, this picture book tells a story of desegregation from the viewpoint of one little girl. Growing up in the South, Connie understands that there are places where she and other African Americans can and cannot eat, drink, swim, and use the bathroom. But after Dr. King visits the local college chapel to preach and her older siblings become active in the NAACP, she also knows that her people are working for change. When her brother's friends sit down at a dime-store lunch counter that refuses them service, their act of peaceful protest starts a wave of similar demonstrations that brings better times to their community and throughout the South. An author's note gives background information about the events in Greensboro that year. Simple and straightforward, the first-person narrative relates events within the context of one close-knit family. Though rather dark, the well-composed, painterly illustrations show up well from a distance. A handsome book for classroom reading, even for middle-grade students. Category: Books for the Young--Fiction. 2005, Dial, $16.99. Gr. 1-3.

Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
Our young black narrator takes us back to Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960 as she experiences the restrictions she lives under in the segregated South. Many places are labeled for “Whites Only.” In Woolworth’s she and her mother must drink their cokes standing since they cannot sit at the counter. But then Dr. King comes to preach, and some young black men begin to try to sit in at the forbidden snack bar. Protests and picketing are followed by arrests, even in her family. But finally she can eat the coveted banana split sitting at the counter, a triumphant symbol to her of the beginning of the end of segregation. Acrylic paintings of varying size clearly define the time and place of the narrative and provide portraits of the actors in this historic drama. Impressionistic, often somber in tone, they give ample evidence of the seriousness of the actions taken despite the lack of obvious violence. A lengthy note adds details about the sit-ins and the times. 2005, Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin Young Readers Group, $16.99. Ages 5 to 9.

Sue Corbett (Miami Herald) (Children's Literature)
Lagarrigue is the artist at work in Freedom on the Menu, a picture book account of the 1960 Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins, written by Carole Boston Weatherford. Weatherford frames her story as a first-person account by a girl whose college-age brother and sister join in the growing protests over segregation in public spaces. Through the eyes of eight-year-old Connie we see how she and her mother must stand to sip their Cokes during a shopping trip, while a girl her age with “a purse almost exactly like mine,” swivels on the counter stool and enjoys a banana split. Later, when the Greensboro Four take seats at the Woolworth’s counter, defying convention, Connie says she’d be too hungry to wait four hours to be served. “(T)hey didn’t really want food,” her father explains. “They wanted to be allowed to get it . . . To be treated fairly.” Fairness is a concept every kid understands so the ending, which shows Connie finally getting both a seat and her own banana split, is supremely satisfying. 2005, Dial/Penguin, $16.99. Ages 5 to 10.

Joan Kindig, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
It occurred to me while reading this book that the 1960s--a period of vibrancy and possibilities in my memories--is ancient and dull history to children in school now. All the more reason to share books like this with them. Weatherford imparts the sense of the danger faced and the sheer bravery that the young men who “stood up by sitting down” exhibited during the Greensboro sit-ins. Told from the point of view of the youngest in her family (and thus excluded from the dangers of protest marches and sit-ins), Connie’s naiveté matches the reader’s. As her understanding of the situation expands, the reader’s does as well. The message is clear: one by one, the barriers fell because of the determination of those who knew they were better than how their country and their communities treated them. Each and every one of them made a difference. Lagarrigue’s beautiful and evocative paintings move from the whole page format to small paintings on a page of text and pull the reader through the story. 2005, Dial/Penguin, $16.99. Ages 7 to 10.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 24))
An ordinary African-American girl witnesses extraordinary events in this first-person account of the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960. Eight-year-old Connie lives in a segregated world where she can't use the same public drinking fountains, bathrooms, movie theatres, swimming pools, and lunch counters as whites. Then one day everything changes. Four African-American college boys stage a sit-in at the local Woolworth's lunch counter and Connie anxiously watches history unfold as her own brother and sister join the picketing and sit-ins and protest spreads throughout the South. A long six months later, Connie samples the sweet taste of freedom when she is served a banana split at the same lunch counter. Lagarrigue's somber, somewhat impressionistic paintings capture the dignity and gravity of the times. This quietly moving story pays tribute to the peaceful protesters who did indeed "overcome." (author's note) 2005, Dial, 32p, $16.99. Category: Picture book. Ages 5 up. © 2004 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Anne Hanson (Library Media Connection, February 2006)
If you want a story to tell children about the struggle for Civil Rights for all, this is just the ticket. The narrator is Connie, a young African-American girl who lives with her family in Greensboro, North Carolina in the 1950s. "All over town, signs told me and Mama where we could and couldn't go." Jerome Lagarrigue's beautiful paintings help her tell the story. Connie says everybody follows the rules except her aunt from New York. After hearing Martin Luther King speak, her older siblings join the NAACP, and Connie accompanies them to register others to vote. One day she and her mother see African-American college students sitting at the whites-only lunch counter. It's the real beginning of the activist movement in Greensboro, and soon hundreds join the sit-ins. While Connie's parents are very worried about her older siblings' activism, they are proud as well. By the end of the summer, the protesters are being served at lunch counters all over the South. I found this book moving as well as delightful. It includes an author's note with a photo of the Woolworth lunch counter sit-in. Recommended. 2005, Dial Press (Penguin Putnam), 32pp., $16.99 hc. Ages 7 to 11.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February 2005 (Vol. 58, No. 6))
Connie loves her Saturday shopping trips with her mom to downtown Greensboro, but she has never been quite satisfied with the promise of a homemade banana split since she couldn’t have one at the segregated lunch counter. Dr. King’s arrival in town signals exciting changes, and Connie’s older brother and sister soon become involved in NAACP voter registration drives and civil rights protests. Connie is too young to march, but she follows the action on TV and through her older siblings, and she is surprised to see a group of her brother’s friends taking seats at the forbidden lunch counter. After a winter of boycotting the store by shopping from catalogues, she and her family drive downtown to find that the lunch counter sit-ins have finally had their effect; the ladies who worked behind the counter are now sitting in front in their best dresses, eating egg salad. Lagarrigue’s roughly textured paintings set a dignified stage for the events, but while undoubtedly beautiful, they seem a bit muddy and dark for the subject matter, which emphasizes clarity of intention and purpose. The homogeneity of their style fails to track the emotional trajectory of the story from bitter disappointment to grim determination to tense anxiety to elated success. However, the text plucks out the moments of the conflict that are most likely to have meaning for a child and that will lead readers to understand the motivations, necessities, and consequences, both good and bad, of civil disobedience. Connie’s child’s-eye view of the sit-ins is briefly supplemented by an author’s note that links the Greensboro action to other instances of activism. This book makes a fine addition to the growing number of youthfully accessible and historically important narratives of the civil rights movement. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2005, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2005, Dial, 32p, $16.99. Ages 6-9 yrs.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2005)
This account of the 1960 sit-ins at the segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, is told from the perspective of eight-year-old observer Connie. The text--full of detail and lively dialogue--moves along smartly and holds true to Connie's experience without sacrificing content or veracity. Somber, impressionistic oils lend the story dignity and weight. Category: Picture Books. 2005, Dial, 32pp, 16.99. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Paula Drum (The Kutztown University Book Review, Spring 2006)
A portrait of the 1960 civil rights sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, as seen through the eyes of a young Southern black girl. This picture book would be appropriate for any level in elementary school. For the younger students, it is a story of a girl who is seeing her world changing. For the older students, it is a representation of what went on during the civil rights movement. This book accurately retold the story of the Greensboro sit-ins while spinning it into a children's book told from the viewpoint of a little girl who was "there." The paintings in this book help to create the mood of the time period and the feelings of the African Americans portrayed in it. I think that this book would be an excellent addition to any collection. Category: Picture Book, Nonfiction. 2005, Dial Books, $16.99. Ages 7 to 12.

Dawn Cobb (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 18, No. 3))
Eight-year-old Connie takes the reader on a journey back in time: the year is 1960; the place is Greensboro, North Carolina. Connie doesn’t understand why she and her mother can’t sit at the local lunch counter and have ice cream like the white people. She doesn’t understand why she and her friends have to drink from separate water fountains from the white children. Connie’s parents talk to her about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the peaceful movement he’s trying to establish so change can begin to take place all across the Southern United States. Her siblings become involved in the sit-ins, marches, and voter registration campaigns. Change finally arrives in Greensboro in the summer of 1960, when the women who work in the kitchen of the restaurant are served at the lunch counter for the very first time. This book was an excellent resource for my third-grade social studies students. I read this book in conjunction with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday activities. It helped demonstrate inequality to my students in such a way that they wouldn’t have been able to understand otherwise. Fiction. Grades 3-5. 2005, Dial, Unpaged., $16.99. Ages 8 to 11.