Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Jimmy

Warriors Dont Cry by Melba Petillo Beals is a moving personal account of the integration of Central High School in the late 1950s. Mrs. Beals was one of the Little Rock Nine, as they were called, who entered a Little Rock, Arkansas high school as its first African-American students. Her own horrific accounts give a glimpse at the barbaric treatment she and her friends faced that school year, from being spit on in the hallways to being chased by an angry mob of parents. The raw emotion and great deal of social injustice present throughout this book is extremely powerful, and Beals wonderful use of descriptive language will put you side-by-side with a 15-year-old girl who must learn to stay poised and composed in the face of a challenge which many would deem to large for a teenager. You will feel Melbas pain as she loses social privileges and her friends are too afraid to come to her birthday party, struggling to remain normal and fit in as she is making history. And you will triumph with her as she stares her enemies in the face and completes her trying journey, learning to cope and survive nine months of tortuous treatment. Warriors Dont Cry is a must-read - it is extremely thought-provocative, and your mind will still be replaying and reviewing the action long after the pages have run out.