The Story of Ruby Bridges

Title: “The Story of Ruby Bridges”

Author: Robert Cole

Genre: Picture Book

Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.

Copyright Date: 2004

Pages in Book: 32 pages

Reading Level: 4-8 years

Summary: The story of Ruby Bridges is an amazing one. Ruby is a young African American girl who is growing up in the 1960’s at the time where schools combined together, mixing white and black children together. Ruby passes the test, and is able to go to school. Unfortunately for her, the white children’s parents refuse to let their children go to class with her, and it is a long time before she even learns that there were white children in the school, just in different areas. Every day she is escorted to school by U.S. Guards, and the white parents and community are surrounding them, swearing and threatening her. At the end of the story, you find out that Ruby prays for them every day, and she risks her life to do it. After a while, some of the white families begin letting their children go to school with her, and she slowly begins to have classmates.

Reaction: I thought this was an amazing story, one of courage and strength. What an amazing girl she is, and what makes it even better is that the story is a true one. I find that she has so much courage, to stand up to all those white people, who are yelling and threatening to kill her. She had so much faith in her God, and she trusted in him completely. I love that.

Recommendation: I’d recommend this to any and every child. I thought it was such a cute story and one that every child needs to hear and read. Everyone can learn something new from this story.

Potential Problems/Conflicts: I didn’t see any problems with this story, and I don’t know how you could! It’s a non-fictional story, and therefore, even if you did have a problem with it, it’s not one that you could just change the ending.