My Mother the Cheerleader

MY MOTHER THE CHEERLEADER: Robert Sharenow: Laura Geringer Books: Young Adult: 288 pages

Thirteen-year-old Louise Collins’s mother, Pauline, is a cheerleader, one of the angry women picketing the integration of schools in New Orleans and harassing Ruby Bridges, the first African American child to enroll in the local elementary school. When Morgan Miller arrives from the North and stays in the Collins’ boarding-house, his presence angers the Ku Klux Klan, challenges Louise’s worldview, and exposes Pauline’s greatest secret. Historical fiction readers will thoroughly enjoy the story and book clubs will find plenty to discuss in this well-written and important book.

MBC