Reviews

Abby Takes a Stand by Patricia C. McKissack

dormilonaluna's review against another edition

4.0

I read this to my fourth graders as a core text for our American Historical Fiction unit. It’s a decent book that tackles a difficult subject—segregation—but it doesn’t go in depth. A lot of my students mentioned that Abby felt a bit like a doll, more so than Kenny (of the Watsons Go To Birmingham, which is the other book we’re reading for the unit). I enjoyed it, it was a quick and easy read, and it worked well for our purposes.

lbrozier's review against another edition

4.0

I read this book because my 9 yr old was reading it for a school project. It was an excellent and educational story. I thought the reading was a little easy for a 4th grader, but enjoyable nonetheless.

xinetr's review against another edition

4.0

I read this to facilitate a Grade 3/4 book group at my daughter’s school. The book, Scraps of Time, 1960: Abby Takes a Stand by Patricia C. McKissack, is a quick, succinct read depicting, from a 10-year-old girl’s perspective, many important issues of the Civil Rights movement in Nashville. I assumed the exact characters were fictional, but the mention of Z. Alexander Looby on p. 82 was certainly too specific not to be true. It always interests me to learn more about important but not widely known people.

The students were completely absorbed with the drama of the unfairness and the bravery of standing up for yourself, politely. I was surprised they didn't mention Chapter 1 at all, and had little to say about the BFF Patsy, although she does serve the purpose of painting a 10-year-old who is just like the reader. We were also able to look at the common literary technique of a story-within-a-story.

The rules for the nonviolent sit-ins appear at the back of the book.

This review is from a 1/15/09 entry at my blog runspot.wordpress.com
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