Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case
Written by Patricia Hruby Powell
Illustrated by Shadra Strickland
Chronicle Books   1/01/2017
978-1-4521-1590-9
260 pages     Ages 8—12

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“In 1955, in Carolina County, Virginia, amidst segregation and prejudice, injustice and cruelty, two teenagers fell in love. Their life together broke the law. But their determination would change it.

“Richard and Mildred Loving were at the heart of a landmark Supreme Court case that legalized marriage between the races. In spare and gorgeous verse, acclaimed author Patricia Hruby Powell tells the story of the devoted couple who faced discrimination, fought it, and won.” [INSIDE JACKET]

Review
[WC 339]
Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter led quiet lives. Both grew up in Central Point, Virginia, an unusual place for the times. This Virginia neighborhood melded as American neighborhoods are supposed to meld. But for 1955, this was a true miracle. Two citizens of this American neighborhood fell in love and wanted to marry and raise a family. In Washington, DC, they did marry. Nine days later, back home in Virginia, the newlyweds were arrested for violating the state’s miscegenation law. Not long ago, if you wanted a peaceful life, you married within your own race.

Told in verse, Loving vs. Virginia is a fast read, if you can zoom through a story both handsome and horrid. Powell’s well-researched story is poignant, troubling, and true. The struggle for civil rights plays out in the background. Photographs show the horrific struggles of the time. Strickland’s images of Richard and Mildred tell of their personal and public struggles as they fight a bigoted sheriff and long court battles.

Loving vs. Virginia is the perfect book to start Black History Month. The struggle for civil rights plays out in the background through newspaper headlines, photographs, and Dr. King’s words. Kids need to hear those words and learn of stories such as the Loving’s story else, they may repeat the sins of the past. Loving vs. Virginia is both heart breaking and triumphant. Kids need to know this story.

Loving vs. Virginia should be required reading in today’s schools. This story, the fight to marry the one you love, regardless of the tone of each person’s skin, needs remembered. Because of the Loving’s public battle to marry the one you love, the US Supreme Court took their case, finally striking down, on the federal level, miscegenation laws. The last state to remove these laws did so only seventeen years ago, in 2000.

Two people fall in love. They want to marry and raise a family. Can the state of Virginia say, “No, you may not?” Once upon a time, this is exactly what they did.

LOVING VS VIRGINIA: A DOCUMENTARY NOVEL OF THE LANDMARK CIVIL RIGHTS CASE. Text copyright © 2017 by Patricia Hruby Powell . Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Shadra Strickland. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA.

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Reprinted with permission from LOVING VS VIRGINIA © 2017 by Patricia Hruby Powell, Chronicle Books. Illustrations © 2017 by Shadra Strickland.

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Copyright © 2017 by Sue Morris/Kid Lit Reviews. All Rights Reserved

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Loving vs. Virginia:  A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case
Written by Patricia Hruby Powell
Illustrated by Shadra Strickland
Chronicle Books 1/01/2017
9781452115909