Rosetta, Rosetta, Sit by Me!
Grade 3-5–This chapter book is based on the life of Rosetta Douglass, daughter of orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. It's Rosetta's first day of school at Miss Tracy's exclusively white Female Seminary in Rochester, NY. Although the students are excited to have the nine-year-old in their class, Miss Tracy does not share their opinion and isolates the girl from her peers. Rosetta has to do her lessons, eat lunch, and play at recess alone. She endures this treatment for two weeks, until her father confronts the principal and begins his fight to desegregate the school district. After Rosetta is dismissed from the seminary, the story continues with her education in Albany and her father's fight for equal schooling, her eventual move back home, and the beginning of her teaching career. While this is a significant historical account that will spark curiosity about the subject, the story attempts to cover more ground than the book's brief length can adequately develop. The abundant biographical information at the end of the story as well as the time line and list of primary and secondary resources help to fill in some of the gaps. For the most part, Velasquez's charcoal artwork supports the story; however, two illustrations in which Rosetta's mother is portrayed with a bandanna on her head have a slightly stereotypical feel. Still, this is a solid purchase that explores an individual who has yet to be discovered in juvenile literature, and opens opportunities for research.–Tracy Bell, Durham Public Schools, NCCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.