Review Detail

“Ruby Bridges: A Talk with My Teacher” by Ruby Bridges, illustrated by Trudy Tran, follows the original story of Ruby Bridges integrating her school, but picks up one year later, when she is looking forward to her first day of second grade. Even though she’s expecting to see Mrs. Henry, her first grade teacher who was so kind to her during what was never an easy integration process, she finds that she has a different teacher. While it seems life may be easier this year since there isn’t yelling and screaming at her as she walks in and the kids all seem somewhat friendly, it shakes her comfort level that she won’t be with the woman who treated her so kindly during such a terrible time.

The book then moves to 35 years later, when Ruby is all grown up and there is a book published about her experiences back when she was in elementary school. She desperately wants to connect with Mrs. Henry again, and lo and behold, she finds herself able to do so. When they meet again, Ruby is just as excited as she was on her first day of second grade when she found that Mrs. Henry wasn’t going to be her teacher again. They share pieces of their lives since they last saw each other several decades ago.

The story very nicely puts the focus on teachers and the impact that they have on individual students. Without Mrs. Henry being there for Ruby’s first grade year, there is no way to know what would have happened during the integration process and how Ruby would have fared from that point forward. The back matter of the book also includes a teacher glossary about other powerful, impactful teachers who educated people in a variety of ways. Some of these people include Maya Angelou, Frederick Douglass, Maria Montessori, Eleanor Roosevelt, Anne Sullivan, Booker T. Washington, and others. May all children have at least one teacher who speaks to them the way that Mrs. Henry spoke to Ruby Bridges.