*A 2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST*
It’s 1964, and Sunny’s town is being invaded. Or at least that’s what the adults of Greenwood, Mississippi, are saying. All Sunny knows is that people from up north are coming to help people register to vote. They’re calling it Freedom Summer.
Meanwhile, Sunny can’t help but feel like her house is being invaded, too. She has a new stepmother, a new brother, and a new sister crowding her life, giving her little room to breathe. And things get even trickier when Sunny and her brother are caught sneaking into the local swimming pool — where they bump into a mystery boy whose life is going to become tangled up in theirs.
As she did in her groundbreaking documentary novel COUNTDOWN, award-winning author Deborah Wiles uses stories and images to tell the riveting story of a certain time and place — and of kids who, in a world where everyone is choosing sides, must figure out how to stand up for themselves and fight for what’s right.
Description taken from Goodreads.
This is the type of book for which Tweens Read Too was created.
The thing about REVOLUTION, along with the first book in the SIXTIES trilogy is that it’s a great read. It’s an awesome way to learn about the era of the Sixties as well as what the everyday lives of the people were like. It’s literally full to bursting with information, and in every page it’s evident how much research is poured into these novels. I respect that, and I really learned a lot from reading these books.
However, I don’t think these are books that tweens will actually enjoy reading. At least, not the tween that I was and not the tweens (or even teens, really) that I know. This book is great to read for a research paper on that time period, maybe for a book report, but it’s very historical fiction. At times, REVOLUTION is overwhelming and I felt like there was too much to look at. I just wanted to read the book, but I couldn’t do that without looking at everything at once.
All in all, REVOLUTION is a good read that I would recommend for fans of historical fiction. It’s very well-written, but not the most entertaining for the average reader. Instead, if you’re looking at history in general, I would go for Ying Chang Compestine’s REVOLUTION IS NOT A DINNER PARTY about the Chinese Revolution, Lisa T. Bergren’s RIVER OF TIME series about ancient Italy, Jennifer Donnelly’s REVOLUTION about the French Revolution or Michelle Moran’s MADAME TUSSAUD novel also about the French Revolution. 3 stars.
pg count for the hardback: 538
Series: The Sixties Trilogy #2
Tweens Read Too 