Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round: Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement (review)

Prolific biographer and historical writer Rappaport returns to the subject of the civil rights movement in this third of her trilogy treating African-American history (see No More!: Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance, BCCB 4/02, and Free at Last!: Stories and Songs of Emancipation, BCCB 7/04), emphasizing the stories of several individuals and interspersing them with occasional songs important to the movement. The episodes are told with maximum drama, so they'll involve kids who may sometimes find history dry and distant. The narrative is consequently choppy, however, and the brief scenes will sometimes leave readers wondering how things turned out; while it's an interesting idea to interweave the songs that are the hallmark of the movement, not all of the pieces are given historical or musical context. Evans' oil illustrations join the text in a preference for effect over subtlety, but the figures are strong and emphatic to the point of monumentality. While the book's flaws preclude its complete success as an introduction to this aspect of American history, the episodes might make for vivid readalouds to older listeners, and the format and story focus will help entice reluctant readers. The book concludes with notes on the present work of a few of the people featured, a timeline of key events, source notes, a bibliography and list of books for further reading, and an index.