Green Book

 

Title: Ruth and the Green Book

Author: Calvin Alexander Ramsey

Illustrator: Floyd Cooper

Publishing Company: Carolrhoda Books

Copyright Date: 2010

Pages: 32

Genre/Category: Historical Fiction

I chose this book because it reminds me of the first black girl, Ruby Bridges, to integrate a white school. This book is about Ruth and her family taking a trip to Alabama from Chicago to see her grandmother.  After leaving the city, stopping for gas and trying to get a hotel room was impossible. This is when the family finds out African-Americans (Negros as they called them in the book) were not welcomed at hotels, gas stations, or restaurants. The family ended up sleeping in the car and using the bathroom outside because those things were only for white people. Ruth dad had a friend named Eddy that lived in Tennessee, who let them stay the night. The next day, Eddy informed them about the Jim Crow Laws and that the trip would get worse the farther South they went, but to look out for Esso gas station. There the family bought the Green Book it was a pamphlet that helped African-Americans when traveling through the states, giving them a listing of the places that would welcome black travelers. The family rested up at two more hotels, got their car fixed, and enjoyed stories from other travelers at the hotels, before reaching Grandmother house.
The illustrations are done on double-page spread, using watercolors with sepia-tone colors.  The drawing showed impressionism and realism on the people’s faces. I enjoyed the history of the Green Book at the end of the book.
This book is recommended for third through sixth grade. I would use this book as a way to introduce the Jim Crow Laws and segregation in social studies. This could be used for Black History Month and Civil Rights Movement.  I would use the green book to investigate traveling patterns of African Americans during the Civil Rights Era. This book has won several awards  2012  Oklahoma Sequoyah Children's, 2010 and 2011 ALA Notable Children's Book Award, 2012 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee, 2013 Illinois Bluestem Children's Choice Award nominee, Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, Gold Medal in the Children’s Picture Books (All Ages) category of the Independent Publisher Book Awards, Capitol Choices Noteworthy Books for Children (Ages 7-10 category), Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choices, ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award, Independent Publisher Book Award, Jefferson Cup Award, Skipping Stones Book Award, SSLI Book Award, Whitney and Scott Cardozo Award for Children's Literature, and School Library Journal – Starred Review.