About the Author
Willie Mae Brown left Alabama at the age of seventeen in 1970 to start a new life in Brooklyn, New York, where she worked for the New York Telephone Company until 2003. A visual artist as well as an author, she began writing stories about her childhood in 2012 and reading them in public in 2015. Known for infusing her personal narratives with the vernacular of her Southern upbringing, Brown has read at numerous public events including Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations at Brooklyn Borough Hall, as well as at many special events across the city, in her home state, and beyond. My Selma is her first book.
Product Description
Combining family stories of the everyday and the extraordinary as seen through the eyes of her twelve-year-old self, Willie Mae Brown gives readers an unforgettable portrayal of her coming of age in a town at the crossroads of history.
As the civil rights movement and the fight for voter rights unfold in Selma, Alabama, many things happen inside and outside the Brown family’s home that do not have anything to do with the landmark 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Yet the famous outrages which unfold on that span form an inescapable backdrop in this collection of stories. In one, Willie Mae takes it upon herself to offer summer babysitting services to a glamorous single white mother―a secret she keeps from her parents that unravels with shocking results. In another, Willie Mae reluctantly joins her mother at a church rally, and is forever changed after hearing Martin Luther King Jr. deliver a defiant speech in spite of a court injunction.
Infused with the vernacular of her Southern upbringing, My Selma captures the voice and vision of a fascinating young person―perspicacious, impetuous, resourceful, and even mystical in her ways of seeing the world around her―who gifts us with a loving portrayal of her hometown while also delivering a no-holds-barred indictment of the time and place.
From School Library Journal
Gr 5 Up—Brown started writing and telling stories of her childhood as a young Black girl in Selma, AL, and formed them into this book. These accounts range from the quotidian (receiving a new Christmas bicycle and fighting with her cousin), to powerful recollections of experiencing the greater civil rights struggle as a child (Brown going with her mother to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak and the arrest of her siblings at a protest). These entries are episodic in nature and do not form a cohesive narrative as in a traditional autobiography. While it is mostly effective as an episodic memoir, the compilation can feel disjointed. The prose is casual and lyrical, drawing from the rich tradition of Southern storytelling, speaking, and preaching. Poetry and song lyrics interspersed with the text add depth. There are allusions to violence against protestors and a few incidents that happen outside of the main action, with only the aftermath witnessed and described by Brown. VERDICT This collection of stories sets the Civil Rights Movement in the context of a child's family life, providing insight for modern readers to understand both the movement and the realities of life for African Americans in the Jim Crow South.—Elizabeth Nicolai
Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month for Ages 9-12
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
“In this powerful memoir, artist Willie Mae Brown recounts striking stories of growing up in Selma, Alabama during the early years of the civil rights movement. Her salient first-hand narrative places readers directly into the sights, smells, and sounds of her hometown.” ―The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“Vivid sensory language is the book’s great strength . . . A beautiful evocation of time and place . . . In her afterword, Brown says that ‘hope is in the telling,’ and her stories offer a strong voice still needed in the ongoing struggle for justice.” ―The Horn Book
“Poignant . . . By balancing personal struggles with
