The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Adapted for Young People)

<b><br><b>A must-read for young people.&#148;&#151;Bryan Stevenson author of <i>Just Mercy</i></b><br><br>Now adapted for readers ages 12 and up the award-winning biography that examines Rosa Parks&#146;s life and 60 years of radical activism and brings the civil rights movement in the North and South to life<br></b><br> <b>The basis for the documentary of the same name&#160;executive produced by award-winning journalist Soledad O&#146;Brien now streaming on Peacock. The documentary is the recepient of the 2022 Television Academy Honors Award.</b><br><br>A Chicago Public Library&#146;s &#147;Best of the Best Books of 2021&#148; Selection &#183; A <i>Kirkus Reviews</i> &#147;Best YA Biography and Memoir of 2021&#148; Selection<br><br>Rosa Parks is one of the most well-known Americans today but much of what is known and taught about her is incomplete distorted and just plain wrong. Adapted for young people from the NAACP Image Award&#150;winning <i>The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks</i> Jeanne Theoharis and Brandy Colbert shatter the myths that Parks was meek accidental tired or middle class. They reveal a lifelong freedom fighter whose activism began two decades before her historic stand that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and continued for 40 years after. Readers will understand what it was like to be Parks from standing up to white supremacist bullies as a young person to meeting her husband Raymond who showed her the possibility of collective activism to her years of frustrated struggle before the boycott to the decade of suffering that followed for her family after her bus arrest. The book follows Parks to Detroit after her family was forced to leave Montgomery Alabama where she spent the second half of her life and reveals her activism alongside a growing Black Power movement and beyond.<br><br>Because Rosa Parks was active for 60 years in the North as well as the South her story provides a broader and more accurate view of the Black freedom struggle across the twentieth century. Theoharis and Colbert show young people how the national fable of Parks and the civil rights movement&#151;celebrated in schools during Black History Month&#151;has warped what we know about Parks and stripped away the power and substance of the movement. <i>The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks</i> illustrates how the movement radically sought to expose and eradicate racism in jobs housing schools and public services as well as police brutality and the over-incarceration of Black people&#151;and how Rosa Parks was a key player throughout.<br><br>Rosa Parks placed her greatest hope in young people&#151;in their vision resolve and boldness to take the struggle forward. As a young adult she discovered Black history and it sustained her across her life. <i>The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks</i> will help do that for a new generation.