We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780593407486)

The powerful story of an eleven-year-old Black boy determined to stand up for his rights, who's pulled into the action of the 1963 civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama.

Rufus Jackson Jones is from Birmingham, the place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the most segregated place in the country. A place that in 1963 is full of civil rights activists including Dr. King. The adults are trying to get more attention to their cause--to show that separate is not equal. Rufus's dad works at the local steel factory, and his mom is a cook at the mill. If they participate in marches, their bosses will fire them. So that's where the kids decide they will come in. Nobody can fire them. So on a bright May morning in 1963, Rufus and his buddies join thousands of other students to peacefully protest in a local park. There they are met with policemen and firemen who turn their powerful hoses on them, and that's where Rufus realizes that they are the fire. And they will not be put out. Shelia Moses gives readers a deeply personal account of one boy's heroism during what came to be known as the Children's Crusade in this important novel that highlights a key turning point in the civil rights movement.

Author: Shelia P. Moses
ISBN-10: 0593407482
ISBN-13: 9780593407486
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Language: English
Published: 09/06/2022
Pages: 176
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.50w x 0.80d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.2
Point Value: 4
Interest Level: Middle Grade Plus
Quiz #/Name: 522847 / We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2022
Publishers Weekly 08/08/2022
Horn Book Magazine 09/01/2022 pg. 93
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 11/01/2022
School Library Journal 10/07/2022 pg. 1
Booklist 10/13/2023
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2022 - Superior,Well Above Average