Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

• Genre: Nonfiction; young adult biography
• Originally Published: 2009
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 1000L; grades 7-12
• Structure/Length: 2 parts; 10 chapters; epilogue and notes; approx. 160 pages; approx. 3 hours, 38 minutes on audio
• Central Concern: When Claudette Colvin was 15, she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to relinquish her seat on a city bus for a white person—nine months before Rosa Parks did the same. This biography details Colvin’s experiences and impact as a civil rights figure in the Jim Crow South.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Race and anti-Black racism; racial violence; social injustice; criminal justice system; references to rape, sexual assault, and sexual exploitation of a minor. The source material references historical documents and events that include racist language, including the “n” word. This guide does not use the “n” word. Other slurs are repeated only when necessary for accuracy (such as in the names of organizations) or understanding (in direct quotations).

Phillip Hoose, Author

• Bio: Born in 1947; raised in Indiana; attended Indiana University and the Yale School of Forestry; lives currently in Maine; writer of books for children and young adults; essayist, musician, songwriter, conservationist; earned the Maine Library Association’s Katahdin Award for lifetime achievement
• Other Works: We Were There, Too!: Young People in US History (2001); The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (2004); Perfect, Once Removed: When Baseball Was All the World to Me (2006); The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club (2015)
• Awards: National Book Award Winner (2009); School Library Best Books List (2009); Newbery Honor Book (2010); ALA Best Book for Young Adults (2010); YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist (2010)