Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys # 24

1.      Author: Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard
2.      Title: Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys
3.      Illustrator: E. B. Lewis
4.      Genre: Literature for a diverse society
5.      Subgenre: Juvenile Fiction
6.      Theme: Schools, gender roles, African Americans, and History
7.      Primary and secondary Characters: Virgie & C.C and Nelson, Will, and George.
8.      Awards: Coretta Scott King Award
9.      Date of Publication: 2000
10.  Publication Company: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
11.  A summary about the book and how you will use it in your classroom.

Virgie is a little girl eager to go to school along with her brother and all the boys.  This story takes place right after President Lincoln declared all slaves free.  All of the African American boys had a place to go to school so Virgie wanted to go too.  The next year Virgie walked that long journey to school with all the boys and stayed all week until returning home to tell her parents everything she had learned.  I would use this book to introduce the end of slavery and how far our country has come since then.  This would be a good way to show my students how freeing slaves was the first of many steps to equality of African Americans in the United States.  This book would also be a great way to help them understand and visualize the time period and the everyday lives of African Americans of this time period.