Rate this book

The Lions Of Little Rock (2012)

by Kristin Levine(Favorite Author)

4.16 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

039925644X (ISBN13: 9780399256448)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Putnam Juvenile

review 1: I really liked this book it was a very nice book i recommend people to read it because it is about a girl name Marlee and a new girl at school name Liz. This reminds of the book i read of "Wonder" because the boy August had no friends but until he met this kids. A girl name summer that became friends with him. August was born with a weird looking face and that and nobody wanted to be his friend but Jack and Summer became friends with him. Two girls separated by race form an unbreakable bond during the tumultuous integration of Little Rock schools in 1958. Marlee is a 12 year old that doesn't have friends until she meets Liz, the new girl at school. Liz is bold and brave, and always knows the right thing to say, especially to Sally, the mean girl. Liz even helps Marlee over... morecome her greatest fear - speaking, which Marlee never does outside her family. This was an amazing book.
review 2: It's hard to express how much I hate this book. I'm marking it as read for my list because I just had the forced march through it with my sixth grader. The book is set the year after the Little Rock Nine integrated Central High. The city of Little Rock reacts by closing the high schools in order to avoid further integration. The story centers around two girls - Marlee, who loves math, is painfully shy and copes with the stress by counting prime numbers in her head and comparing people to beverages(great, more "smart girls are misfits" stereotypes) and Liz, who is a light-skinned black girl "passing" in order to attend the better quality white junior high.Predictably, Liz is quickly found out and leaves school. Marlee is sad to lose her friend, but too stupid to understand that she is putting her friend in real, physical danger by insisting on meeting her in public places. Even my kid said "How stupid is she? The rednecks are going to kill her friend." Why yes, dear, she is stupid. And when Our Heroine identifies the threat (dynamite, if you're interested) does she go to the police? Why no, she hides all but two sticks in the wooods. Cause two sticks won't hurt anything, right? And the bad boys won't do anyting right? And then after the expected explosion occurs (spoiler - no one gets hurt), Our Herione's parents just go to the home of the bomber's parents - members of the KKK - to confront them. The bad boy is sent off to the Army with no other punishment (so military service is an appropriate punishment for attempted murder?) and the story ends.It is a stupid story, about an incredibly dumb girl who puts everyone's safety at risk because she is stupid. Not brave, stupid. And miraculously everything ends up fine. Except that Marlee is still painfully shy, still doing the homework for the brother of the bomber, and Liz is still at her old school where everyone now hates her. The End!The story assumes an understanding of some pretty complex (for a sixth grader) subjects. Things I had to explain before he could follow the story included: segregation, desegregation, integration, "passing" (what it meant, why someone would do it, and the risks involved), Brown v BOE, Little Rock Nine, lynching, colored schools/movie theatres/drinking fountains, the KKK, why people in the south were so awful, and so on.His takeaways? The 50's were awful. People in the south are racist hicks. Marlee is an idiot.There are much better books on the subject. Skip this one. less

Download links for: The Lions of Little Rock

Advertising