Freedom Songs
by Yvette Moore

Freedom Songs is the moving coming of age story of 14-year-old Sheryl Williams of Brooklyn, New York, who is pulled into the Civil Rights Movement after a family trip to North Carolina changes her idyllic view of her mother’s hometown in 1963. Sheryl’s mother’s youngest brother, Pete, farms the family land, attends a nearby Negro college and has begun organizing Negroes in the area to register to vote, making some family members afraid but pushing Sheryl to action.

The narrative resonates with the details and emotions of the times …. Moore’s vivid language and convincing ability takes readers to a crucial time in our history.
—School Library Journal

In the tradition of Mildred Taylor, Moore presents an authentic, disturbing slice of black American history as she traces an impressionable heroine’s changing perceptions. Although the story is set nearly 30 years ago, its themes regarding injustice, oppression and nonviolent forms of resistance remain relevant today.
—Publishers Weekly

Moore subtly and effectively describes the changing mixture of fear and resolution with which Sheryl faces white hostility, as well as the firm church and family relationships that are her foundation. She also presents the methods and nonviolent philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement as clearly as the abuses it aimed to correct. An uncompromising first novel that’s easily strong enough to carry its educational load.
—Kirkus Review