{"id":5223,"date":"2020-11-08T00:01:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-08T06:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5223"},"modified":"2020-11-08T07:50:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T13:50:59","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-716-featuring-this-is-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5223","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #716: Featuring This Is Your Time<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nI don’t have illustrations for you today, dear Imps, as I normally do. But I want to take a moment to highlight a book that will be on shelves next week \u2014 This Is Your Time<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Random House), written by civil rights activist and icon Ruby Bridges<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

This is a short (64 pages) and small but powerful book. Ruby Bridges, as you know if you know your American history, was the first Black student\u2014at the age of six\u2014to desegregate an all-white elementary school. We’ve all seen the images of Ruby being escorted by four federal marshals on her first day at William Frantz Elementary in New Orleans on November 14, 1960. Ruby was the subject of the Norman Rockwell painting on this book’s cover. <\/p>\n

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Bridges, who has established the Ruby Bridges Foundation to provide leadership training for children and community leaders, presents the book as a letter. On page one, accompanied by a black and white photo of her as a child, she addreses “the young peacemakers of America.” She looks back to her childhood (“I did not yet know that I had stepped into the history books”), recalling what it was like to walk through crowds of people “yelling, screaming threats, throwing things at six-year-old me.” The book has a generous amount of photos, including a striking one of parents outside her school, protesting integration, with a coffin holding a black doll. <\/p>\n

She writes briefly about her parents (with a particular focus on her father) and pays special tribute to Barbara Henry, the one teacher who didn’t quit because of her presence in the school and her partner in education. The book then shifts to show Ruby at work in schools today and stories she shares about children she’s met over the past twenty-five years. “I have not witnessed hatred or bigotry when I’ve looked into your young eyes,” she writes. Racism is a “grown-up disease,” she stresses. She writes about violence against Black people but also protests that are happening today; people out there making change happen; and the resilience of young people. <\/p>\n

The book is dedicated to Congressman John Lewis: “Job well done, our good and faithful servant!” she writes. “The torch is passed!”<\/p>\n

So, find this one and share it with the youngest readers you know. Keep that light going. <\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n

* * * Jules’s Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font><\/center><\/p>\n

Well, in the middle of working on this post, I see this at the New York Times<\/em>, and I can’t stop crying from happiness. I’ve just run to hug my family and cry some more. I think I’ll just leave this here. It represents more than seven kicks, to say the least:
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\nWhat are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I don’t have illustrations for you today, dear Imps, as I normally do. But I want to take a moment to highlight a book that will be on shelves next week \u2014 This Is Your Time (Random House), written by civil rights activist and icon Ruby Bridges. This is a short (64 pages) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,26,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-intermediate","category-nonfiction","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}