I Am Rosa Parks

Following books on Abraham Lincoln and Amelia Earhart, this third title in Meltzer and Eliopoulos’s Ordinary People Change the World series traces the life of Rosa Parks from the segregated classrooms of her childhood to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. As in the previous books, Parks is portrayed as a roundheaded cartoon child, even during her adult years, underscoring the idea that anyone is capable of bringing about monumental change. Moments of humor help balance out the harsh racial prejudice on display, but it’s Parks’s determination that stands out strongest. “I knew what the rules said,” she says. “But I also knew in my heart: That’s not how you treat people.” Ages 3–5. (June)