Birmingham 1963

Written by Carole Boston Weatherford

Narrated by Lizzie Cooper Davis

In Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, it is one little girl's 10th birthday. Excited about Youth Day at the 16th Street Baptist Church, she puts on her patent leather shoes and practices her choir solo. But her birthday will include no cake and no candles this year. A group of men have tucked a bundle of dynamite under the church's steps, and when it goes off, four girls are dead: AddieMae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair. Smoke clogs the throats of worshippers as they search for sisters, brothers, mothers, and fathers in the crumbled plaster and broken glass. Author Carole Boston Weatherford, an award-winning poet and children's author, shares this story in poignant free verse poetry from the viewpoint of a fictional child eyewitness. Listeners will be transported back to this dark period in American history by Lizzie Cooper Davis' moving narration. "These children-unoffending; innocent and beautiful-were the victims of one of the most vicious, heinous crimes ever perpetrated against humanity ... in spite of the darkness of this hour we must not despair. We must not become bitter ..."-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., eulogy for victims of the 16th Street Church bombing "To all who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. The struggle continues." -author's dedication

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490608891

Carole Boston Weatherford

Carole Boston Weatherford has written many award-winning books for children, including Kin, illustrated by her son Jeffery and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient; Box, which won a Newbery Honor; Unspeakable, which won the Coretta Scott King Award, a Caldecott Honor, and was a finalist for the National Book Award; Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; ALA Notable Children’s Book You Can Fly; and Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Carole lives in North Carolina. Visit her at CBWeatherford.com. 

Reviews for Birmingham 1963

[kitbraddick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a beautiful, yet heart breaking book. I would definitely use this book in a classroom to teach the significance and despair that came along with the civil rights movement. Especially because this is often a hard topic to explain--it is sometimes difficult to have students empathize or picture themselves in this time, it is also hard for them to understand how many innocent lives and futures were stolen as a result of pointless hate. The poems at the end of the text of the little girls that were killed in the Birmingham bombings communicate that topic beautifully. They show what the girls could have done, what they wanted to do, and how innocent they truly were.

[epoche-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am not the biggest history fan but I did learn about the Birmingham bombing by reading this book, which I never knew about. This book is about the bombing of a church, which was a civil rights meeting place. The Ku Klux Klan planted dynamite under the steps of the chrch and was responsible for the death of four young girls. The book is written from the eyes of the witnesses of the bombing. The photographs and free verse are what makes this book a favorite, even if it is about history. The book includes four free verse biography poems, which are good examples for lessons about biographies.

[missrader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A very moving collection of verse. Uses photographs from the actual events that the poetry is describing. The word choice of the author makes the pictures come alive and the events come alive.

[judimoreillon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Weatherford contrasts the narrator's everyday story with the tragic events of that particular day to powerful effect. A reader cannot read this book of poignant poems without feeling the pain of racial hatred. The memorial poems at the end, one to each of the four murdered girls, will bring tears to your eyes.

[ohioyalibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The perfect companion to "The Watsons Go To Birmingham 1963" by Christopher Paul Curtis. While the narrator of this free verse poem is fictional, all of the other characters and events, including pictures are real. This work vividly describes the horror of the church bombing that killed four young girls in 1963. Very moving.