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Reviewed by:
  • Night on Fire by Ronald Kidd
  • Elizabeth Bush
Kidd, Ronald Night on Fire. Whitman, 2015 [288p]
ISBN 978-0-8075-7024-1 $16.99
Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6

Billie Sims’ affection for her family’s black housekeeper, Lavender, is longstanding and heartfelt, and therefore it has never occurred to her that racism could figure into their relationship. Yes, her father gets snippy with Lavender, and her mother may take her for granted a bit, but surely the Sims family are not the nasty kind of bigots that go out of their way to make Lavender’s life a misery when she walks into an Anniston, Alabama business. However, when the Freedom Riders are mobbed and beaten on a bus stop in Anniston, Billie stands on the sidelines with her father and does nothing. But neither, for that matter, does Lavender’s daughter, Jarmaine, who has already spoken out in public regarding a segregated state spelling bee. Now Jarmaine and Billie, each startled by her own lack of courage and commitment, form an uneasy alliance and support each other on their own personal freedom ride to hear Dr. King speak in Montgomery, Alabama on the night in which Robert Kennedy was requested to deploy federal troops to quell segregationists attacking the First Baptist Church. Kidd supplies sufficient family backstory to make the girls into credible characters; however, it’s their polar views of the world that are really on display here, and Kidd’s carefully orchestrated plot points and conversations serve as a guided tour through their crises of conscience. This could function well as a classroom readaloud and as a step-up book to Bausum’s title Freedom Riders (BCCB 4/06).

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