Growing Up in the New South
A Bibliography
by Mark I. West

PICTURE BOOKS FOR YOUNGER READERS

Back Home by Gloria Jean Pinkney, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
Dial Books for Young Readers, 1992, 0-8037-1168-9
Set in the early 1950s, this semi-autobiographical story focuses on an eight-year-old African American girl from Philadelphia who takes a train ride to Lumberton, North Carolina to visit her relatives. While in Lumberton, she learns about what life is like on a family farm. Ages 4–8.

The Bourbon Street Musicians by Kathy Price, illustrated by Andrew Glass
Clarion Books, 2002, 0-618-04076-5
A take off on the famous fairy tale the Bremen Town Musicians, this humorous picture book introduces children to the music and culture associated with New Orleans. Ages 4–8.

The Bus Ride by William Miller, illustrated by John Ward
Lee and Low, 2001, 1-58430-026-4
Inspired by Rosa Parks’ famous act of civil disobedience, this book deals with the conditions that led to the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama in the mid-1950s. The central character in the story is an African American girl who decides to sit in the front of a city bus. The rest of the story recounts what happens as a result of this decision. Ages 6–10.

Georgia Music by Helen V. Griffith, illustrated by James Stevenson
Greenwillow Books, 1986, 0-688-06071-4
In the first half of this story, a girl from Baltimore spends the summer in rural Georgia with her grandfather. He teaches her how to garden and play the mouth organ. The next summer the grandfather moves in with his family in Baltimore, but he misses his life in Georgia. The girl helps him feel less homesick by playing songs for him on her mouth organ. Ages 4-8.

Goin’ Someplace Special by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
Antheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001, 0-689-81885-8
Set in Nashville during the mid-1950s, this story shows the many ways that segregation impinges on the experiences of an African American girl as she makes her way across town to visit the public library. Ages 6–10.

Home Place by Crescent Dragonwagon, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney  
Macmillan, 1990, 0-02-733190-3
A contemporary white girl is hiking with her family in Arkansas when she comes across an abandoned farm where an African American family had lived many years ago. With each detail that she observes, she feels more connected to this family from the past. Ages 4–8.

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001, 0-399-23116-1
Set in a small southern town in the 1950s, The Other Side shows how an African American girl and the white girl who lives on the other side of the fence gradually become friends despite the prejudice of their elders. Ages 6–10.
 
BOOKS FOR OLDER READERS

Belle Prater’s Boy by Ruth White
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996, 0374306680
A Newbery Honor Book, Belle Prater’s Boy is a mystery novel set in a coal mining community in Virginia in 1953. The central character, a sixth grade boy named Woodrow Prater has a mother who disappears. His cousin, a girl named Gypsy Leemaster, helps him as he tries to find out what happened to his missing mother. Ages 9–12.

Clover by Dori Sanders
Algonquin Books, 1990, 0-945575-26-2
Set in contemporary South Carolina, Clover focuses on a ten-year-old African American girl and her strained relationship with her white stepmother. Ages 10 and up.

Getting Near to Baby by Audrey Couloumbis
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1999, 0-399-23389-X
This Newbery Honor Book is set in a small town in contemporary North Carolina. The central character, a thirteen-year-old girl named Willa Jo Dean, has recently experienced the death of her baby sister, and the novel focuses on her attempts to cope with this family tragedy. Ages 12 and up.

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen
Viking, 1999, 0-670-88549-5
Toward the beginning of this young adult novel, fifteen-year-old Nicole moves to Colby, North Carolina, to spend the summer with her eccentric aunt. While in Colby, she gets a job as a waitress at the Last Chance Bar and Grill, and through this job she meets several people who change her life. Ages 12 and up.

Me and Rupert Goody by Barbara O’Connor
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999, 0-374-44804-3
Set in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina, this story takes place nowadays, but the community retains many of the qualities associated with earlier times. The central character is a girl who enjoys working in her uncle’s general store. Her life is disrupted when an African American man with a learning disability suddenly appears, claiming that the girl’s uncle is his father. At first she resents this newcomer, but her attitude toward him gradually changes. Ages 9–12.

Spite Fences by Trudy Krisher
Delacorte Press, 1994, 0-385-32088-4
In this historical novel, which takes place in a small Georgia town in 1960, a thirteen-year old white girl witnesses a horrible act of racism. The story deals with her response to this incident. Ages 12 and up.

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan
HarperCollins, 2002, 0-06-623602-9
The central character in this Newbery Honor Book is a maladjusted, thirteen-year-old boy who has been expelled from several schools. At the beginning of the story, he moves to rural North Carolina to attend a small alternative school run by the eccentric Applewhite family. While living with the Applewhites, he develops an interest in theatre. Ages 9–12. has a genuine talent for business and the resolve to make her family’s fortune; disguised as a young man, she travels by caravan to another kingdom—and a romance that wasn’t in her plans. This lighthearted story with its appealing heroine is based on an Iraqi folktale. Ages 11 and up.