[.ca] White Socks Only (ISBN 0807589551)

Excellent children's book on prejudice:
"White Socks Only" takes place in segregated Mississippi and does an excellent job of helping young children realize how foolish it is to judge others by the color of their skin. On a hot Mississippi day, a young African-American girl walks into town and stops at a drinking fountain to get a drink. She sees a "Whites Only" sign on the drinking fountain and misinterprets the meaning of the sign. She innocently thinks the sign must mean "White Socks Only", so she takes off her black, Sunday best shoes and steps up to the fountain wearing her clean white socks. Suddenly, an angry white man pushes her to the ground. Soon other African-Americans gather around the fountain. To show their support and understanding of the child's innocent mistake, one by one they also take off their shoes and step up to get a drink with red, yellow, or blue socks. She is rescued by the "Chicken Man," who has very unusual powers. This book deals with the issue of racism in a way that young children can relate to and understand because it makes the idea of judging people by the color of their skin almost as foolish as judging people by the color of their socks. I read this book to my fifth grade class and it generated some wonderful discussions about racism, and treating others with respect and kindness regardless of who they are, where they live, the color of their skin, or what clothes they wear. I highly recommend this book.

White Socks Only:
I read this story to my students and were saddened by the events that took place but learned a valuable lesson! We are all equal no matter which color or race we are! A good book for children to learn that racism through the eyes of a little girl.

The Lonesome Pine:
I read the book, The Lonesome Pine by Jane West. This book is about a Christmas tree that turns into a beautiful book. I enjoyed this book because the pictures were incredible, and the author put great descriptions, used her imagination and put lots of thought into this book. The illustrater, Monique Luijan-Bakerink made extroardinary pictures done in patel and paints. She made light fluffy colors. The illustrater definetly read the book before drawing the pictures because they looked exactly loke the descriptions the author put in the story. I think that the author put great thought into this book before writing it. Some of the topics in this book are hard to understand and probobly took this author many hours to think it up. The author showed great talent by showing incredible imagination. This book has many imaginatinary topics. Jane West is a great author and I would like to thank her some day. So, if youn want to read a great book by an excellent author, read the Lonesome Pine.

An important book for young children:
I read this book to my children and they loved it. Even at their ages - 7 and 8 - they clearly understood the irony of the title. This story gives children a front-row view of how ugly prejudice is, but does so in a gentle enough manner that it is appropriate for young ones.