Book Info:
A Mighty Long Way (Adapted for Young Readers): My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School by Carlotta Walls Lanier and Lisa Frazier Page
Genre: Middle Grade Biography
Publishing Date: January 17, 2023
Synopsis:
Follow the story of Carlotta Walls LaNier, who in 1957 at the age of fourteen was one of nine black students who integrated the all-white Little Rock Central High School and became known as the Little Rock Nine.
At fourteen years old, Carlotta Walls was the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine. The journey to integration in a place deeply against it would not be not easy. Yet Carlotta, her family, and the other eight students and their families answered the call to be part of the desegregation order issued by the US Supreme Court in its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case. As angry mobs protested, the students were escorted into Little Rock Central High School by escorts from the 101st Airborne Division, which had been called in by then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower to ensure their safety. The effort needed to get through that first year in high school was monumental, but Carlotta held strong. Ultimately, she became the first Black female ever to walk across the Central High stage and receive a diploma. The Little Rock Nine experienced traumatic and life-changing events not only as a group but also as individuals, each with a distinct personality and a different story. This is Carlotta’s courageous story.
Content Warning: racism, violence, segregation in education
Book Links:
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Mighty-Long-Way-Adapted-for-Young-Readers-Carlotta-Walls-Lanier-Lisa-Frazier-Page/9780593486757
Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/a-mighty-long-way-adapted/9780593486757-item.html
IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780593486757
About Carlotta Walls LaNier:
Carlotta Walls LaNier attended Michigan State University and graduated from Colorado State College–now the University of Northern Colorado, on whose board of trustees she sits. After working for the YWCA, she founded her own real estate brokerage firm, LaNier and Company. A sought-after lecturer, LaNier speaks across the country, and she has received the Congressional Medal of Honor and two honorary doctorate degrees. She is the mother of two children, Whitney and Brooke, and lives in Englewood, Colorado, with her husband, Ira. Carlotta Walls LaNier is available for select readings and lectures. To inquire about a possible appearance, please contact Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau at speakers@penguinrandomhouse.com or visit http://www.prhspeakers.com.
Carlotta’s Links:
Website: https://www.prhspeakers.com/
About Lisa Frazier Page:
Lisa Frazier Page, an editor and award-winning reporter at The Washington Post, is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream. A graduate of New Orleans’s Dillard University, Page holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She grew up in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband. They have four children.
Lisa’s Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisafpage
Tour Schedule:
I admit that normally I do not read as much Non-Fiction as much as I read Fiction but when I got the email about A Mighty Long Way I was drawn to it because I already had seen a film about Ruby Bridges and knew I wanted to know more.
It is very hard to review a book like this as this was Carlotta's life and her bravery at the age of 14 to go through such hate is beyond me. This book must of been very hard for Carlotta to relive such harrowing events I doff my cap. I was totally moved by her story and in fact I shed some tears in utter disbelief how humans could treat other humans that way.
It is also a story of family, love and hope and should be talked more about in Schools especially and discussed no matter where the School is.
Thank you Carlotta for writing this book and for all the reasons above I am giving 4 stars