num_pages: 32
description: Two boys—one black, one white—are best friends in the segregated 1960s South in this picture book about friends sticking together through thick and thin.John Henry swims better than anyone I know.He crawls like a catfish,blows bubbles like a swamp monster,but he doesn’t swim in the town pool with me.He’s not allowed.Joe and John Henry are a lot alike. They both like shooting marbles, they both want to be firemen, and they both love to swim. But there’s one important way they're Joe is white and John Henry is black, and in the South in 1964, that means John Henry isn’t allowed to do everything his best friend is. Then a law is passed that forbids segregation and opens the town pool to everyone. Joe and John Henry are so excited they race each other there...only to discover that it takes more than a new law to change people’s hearts.
language: English
title: Freedom Summer
titlecomplete: Freedom Summer
genres: Historical, Childrens, African American, Social Justice, Picture Books, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Race, Cultural, Realistic Fiction
ratings_count: 2899
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Once Upon A World Children’s Book Award, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Ezra Jack Keats Book Award
category: New Writer and New Illustrator, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: John Steptoe New Talent Award
category: Illustrator, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: California Young Readers Medal
category: Picture Books for Older Readers
publisher: Aladdin