Synopses & Reviews
Every summer Sarah Marie visits her Grandmama who lives in the south. She doesn't realize how segregated the south is because Grandmama is too proud to put up with those things. They walk to town instead of sitting in the back of the bus.
Review
"Told in Sarah Marie's voice, this slice of dramatic history will touch both heart and mind."
Booklist
Review
"The strong, sensitive writing is enhanced by beautiful watercolor paintings filled with chips of light."
School Library Journal
Review
"Bittersweet nostalgia and a gentle introduction to an important and painful piece of our national past."
Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Every summer, Mama, Sister, and Sarah Marie take the bus down south to visit Grandmama. The three of them sit in the back of the bus, because, as Mama says, it is the best seat. At the bus station, Grandmama is waiting in the stand-up waiting room, though there is another room where people can sit down. Later, on a walk into town, the girls don't drink from the water fountain because Grandmama says she'll make fresh lemon-mint iced tea when they get home. Throughout the summer, Aunt Maria teaches Sarah Marie how to read. Then Sarah Marie notices signs in town she hadn't been able to read before, like the one on a bathroom door that says "White Women" and another that says "Colored Women." Sarah Marie faces a hard realization about the segregated South. But in the fall she reads about events happening in places like Clinton, Tennessee, and Montgomery, Alabama. And by the next summer, when they go back to visit Grandmama, they all sit in the front of the bus.