March (Book One)

What a phenomenal story of John Lewis' life during the Civil Rights Movement. I absolutely love that this beginning is written as he is telling his story to two young African American boys. He gets interrupted a few times but the flashbacks and then back to present day is so awesome. And for him to be telling his story on the day of Obama's inauguration was a phenomenal idea. I learned so much from this book that I truly didn't know. As kids we learn about sit-ins and the marches but we don't really learn all of the behind-the-scenes aspects that even made it happen. There were so many people involved and so much occurred before the infamous events that we are taught in at school. We learn about the sit-ins in restaurants but we are rarely taught that it happened in a number of places all over the US. And their belief in nonviolent protests and how strong they were to stick to that even as others were beating them and harassing them. The strength that started the movement was monumental and I think books like this should be more required reading in schools today. We should be taught the whole story!