Remember: The Journey to School Integration

Morrison, T. (2004). Remember: the journey to school integration. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Genre: Informational, Multicultural

Grades: Grades 2-5

Summary: In Remember, Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison provides an insightful look into the lives of young people during the desegregation of schools in America. Actual photographs from that era are compiled into this striking book. Morrison supplements the photographs with a fictional account of what conversations between the students may have been like. More than anything, the photographs themselves tell the story more than any words could have. In addition, Morrison has included a timeline of key events in school desegregation and photo notes.

Reflection: Morrison, who experienced the school desegregation herself, has put together a book that flows chronologically from the beginnings of school desegregation to the end. The pictures suppport the events that occurred. She provides a brief introduction to allow young readers to have an idea of the situation the photographs portray. Structurally, the book is divided into three parts: before school desegregation, during school desegregetion, and continuing segregation.  After a brief description of events, photographs follow with a fictional account of possible conversations. There is actually a small amount of text for each picture with a lot of meaning in what the words are telling the reader. In most cases, the pictures express more than the words. 

Students could research an event on the timeline and report on it to the class, write an interview on school desegregation, or write a story to describe a photograph. Students can discuss how the book made them feel and what they learned about segregation. This book is very powerful and will give students a lot to think about!