Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-31607016-4. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Four college friends sit at the lunch counter at Woolworth's on Feb. 1, 1960, in Greensboro, NC, and wait to order a doughnut and coffee with cream on the side. But their chance never comes, because in 1960, African Americans were not allowed to eat at the lunch counter with white folks. Their silent protest of segregation in the United States was an important part of the country's Civil Rights Movement, and is told beautifully by Andrea Pinkney (author) and Brian Pinkney (illustrator) who take readers on a journey of the students' non-violent protests that started America's integration process. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS 
Although the story's initial main characters are college friends David, Joseph, Franklin and Ezell, Andrea and Brian Pinkney write and illustrate Sit In as a journey through the timeline of peaceful protest toward the Civil Rights Movement's goal of racial integration in the 1960s. Andrea's flowing free verse and heavy use of metaphors give young readers a firm understanding of the importance of the Civil Rights struggle as the young protestors faced crowds of hateful people resistant to social change. During the most violent part of the book where white people dumped food and hot coffee all over the young African American protestors and treated them as if they were less than human, Brian makes an interesting choice to not give much color tone or determined features to the white aggressors. Instead, he focuses on the peaceful determination of the students. Two of them sat withdrawn from the angry mob, their eyes shut concentrating, and one girl, eyes wide open, with a look of empty determinism, stares straight ahead at the reader -- enduring the pain, hatred, and intimidation for a larger cause (22). 

Not treating African Americans as if they, too, are human was a theme throughout the book. Young children might be surprised or hurt when they learn about the "Whites Only" signs mentioned in the text, which were posted all over communities to tell African Americans where they could not share public spaces or facilities including: bathrooms, pools, parks, and certain sections of the buses. "This was the law's recipe for segregation. Its instructions were easy to follow: Do not combine white people with black people. Segregation was a bitter mix" (5). 

By not integrating, white people were able to "ignore" and "refuse" to serve black citizens in a myriad of ways (6). But by turning the tables on the white rules, the protesters were refusing the status quo that kept them down. 

Another main character in the book who is never visually depicted but is with the protesters and the Civil Rights Movement throughout the text is the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Andrea uses his words as inspiration during important parts of the story urging the protestors to continue to "demonstrate calm dignity" (26). 

Brian's swirling and colorful drawings keep up with the pace of Andrea's poems. The two work together seamlessly to tell the story of one of the most important periods of America's history. To support the accuracy of the story, the author also offers a non-fiction timeline of the Civil Rights Movement and "A Final Helping" of notes about the people the characters were based on in the book. Extra readings and websites pertinent to the subject are listed on the back page, as well. 

4.  REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Booklist 
"Food-related wordplay adds layers to the free verse, as in the lines about the protesters' recipe for integration: 'Combine black with white/ to make sweet justice'... The recipe metaphors are repetitive, but at the core of the exciting narrative are scenes that show the difficulty of facing hatred."

From School Library Journal
"With swirling swabs of color that masterfully intertwine with sometimes thin, sometimes thick lines, Brian Pinkney cleverly centers the action and brings immediacy to the pages." 

5. CONNECTIONS
America's racial divide has deepened since the last presidential election. For African Americans protests in response to police violence against black people, particularly young boys, have had increased attention in last decade due to the internet and 24-hour news coverage. It is impossible to have an understanding of how America got to where it is today in regards to race relations, without understanding what the country was like over 50 years ago. Telling this history is important so that people can continue to understand the struggle and perseverance of African Americans in the United States. 

For elementary school children, the current racial tensions are likely more in their faces than some adults may think. Reading books about the movement, its leaders, and how they were able to make positive change for not just African Americans, but for all minority groups can give voice to children of color in the classroom, and build empathy and understanding for those who were unaware of the struggles other people face in their day-to-day life. 

Consider reading several companion picture books to Sit in like Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of Voting Rights by Jonah Winter (ISBN: 978-0385390286) and The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks: A Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson (ISBN: 978-1481400701). Whether citizens are seniors, like Lillian, or young, like Audrey, standing up for equality for all people is a social imperative.