The Girl from the Tar Paper School

by Teri Kanefield

2014

Ages:  Grades 5-8

Genres: Non-fiction, multicultural

Jane Addams Peace Association Book Award

Junior Library Guild Selection

Summary: Racial segregation has existed in our country more recently than we like to believe.  Before Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man and before Martin Luther King, Jr. began his March on Washington, Barbara Johns, a young girl in Farmville, Virginia, led a non-violent protest.  Barbara Johns was tired going to school every day in a school that had leaky roofs, tar paper for walls and smokey, pot-bellied stoves that put off little heat while white students in the same town went to school in the most modern building with all of the conveniences.  Barbara took her concerns to administration and the school board and was told things were being done to make the situation right, but she did not see evidence and, therefore, did not believe them.  She decided to do something about it.

My reaction: I loved this book.  The way Teri combines Barbara's memoir and the interviews with actual photos brings the story to life and helps the reader to feel the struggles Barbara and her peers are going through.  This story was eye-opening because I did not realize that some young people still experienced segregation in education long after Brown vs. the Board of Education made segregation illegal.  This book did not end the way I had hoped.  However, though Barbara never got to experience the results of her efforts, young people in Farmville today.

Activity: Share The Girl from the Tarpaper School with students.  Have students brainstorm how they can make a positive difference in their school, i.e. trash patrol, book drive, coin drive for a children's hospital, etc.  Help students develop the project and see it to fruition.  This will expose students to how poorly some students have things and will also help them to see that they can make a difference in making the world a better place.