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    My Mother the Cheerleader
    Unavailable
    My Mother the Cheerleader
    Unavailable
    My Mother the Cheerleader
    Ebook193 pages2 hours

    My Mother the Cheerleader

    By Robert Sharenow

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Share this "harrowing and painfully honest historical novel"* at home or in the classroom. Through this "extraordinary" debut effort from the Sydney Taylor Award winner Robert Sharenow, readers will explore how "ingrained prejudices—whether acted upon or not—help destroy lives and shatter a community."**

    In 1960 New Orleans, thirteen-year-old Louise is pulled out of class by her mother to protest court-ordered integration of her school. Louise’s mother is one of the jeering “Cheerleaders.” Each morning the Cheerleaders gather at the school to harass the school's first black student, six-year-old Ruby Bridges, as she enters the building.

    After a mysterious man from New York named Morgan arrives in town and takes up residence in the family's crumbling boarding house, Louise's acceptance of "the way things are" begins to crumble.

    Through conversations with Morgan and firsthand observations, Louise begins to wonder about the morality of the Cheerleaders’ activities—and everything Louise thinks she knows about her mother, her world, and herself will change.

    In a starred review, Booklist commented: "Readers will be held fast by the history told from the inside as adult Louise remembers the vicious role of ordinary people."

    *School Library Journal (starred review) ; **Chicago Tribune

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 17, 2009
    ISBN9780061851308
    Unavailable
    My Mother the Cheerleader
    Author

    Robert Sharenow

    Robert Sharenow is an award-winning writer and television producer. He is the author of the middle-grade novel The Girl in the Torch, as well as the teen novels My Mother the Cheerleader and The Berlin Boxing Club. Since its publication in 2012, The Berlin Boxing Club has been named a Sydney Taylor Book Award winner and an Amelia Walden Award finalist, and has received multiple received multiple starred reviews, as well as a spot on ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults list. The novel has been published in several countries and languages and is perennially taught in high school curriculums in the United States and around the world. Sharenow lives in New York with his wife and two daughters.

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    Reviews for My Mother the Cheerleader

    4/5

    74 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Wonderful book! It's the kind of young adult fiction that makes me wonder, "Would kids like this?" because it's so good that as an adult I couldn't put it down.

      Can't wait to hear more from Robert Sharenow.
    • 4/5
      History looks different when it is seen through the eyes of a child! Very thought-provoking book...it would be great to read in a history class when talking about Ruby Bridges & desegregation
    • 5/5
      Sharenow takes the reader into the world of white supremacists like the Cheerleaders, the women who jeered at six-year-old Ruby Bridges as she walked into her elementary school in New Orleans's Ninth Ward in 1960. Louise is thirteen, and her mother Pauline has pulled her out of school to protest desegregation. Pauline spends her mornings screaming with the Cheerleaders and her afternoons drinking herself into oblivion while Louise runs her boarding house, Rooms on Desire.When Morgan Miller, a Jewish editor from New York, briefly stays at the boarding house, both Louise and her mother are fascinated. Morgan has come south to renew his broken relationship with his family, but quickly becomes involved in a conflict with members of the Klan. By eavesdropping on her mother's conversations with Morgan, Louise finds out things about herself and her mother she had never known. Pauline is both more broken and more loving than Louise had ever realized. What comes as a result of the book's tragic ending shows how courage and strength are imperfect yet present, even within the most racist of characters.
    • 5/5
      Louise's mother is one of the group of people that arrive each morning to taunt a little black girl, Ruby Briudges, as she enters the school building. Forced integration was not popular in this community and it resulted in viciousness and cruelty.This story takes place in the 1960's and tells of public school integration from the viewpoint of the white people living in the community.
    • 4/5
      Interesting view of life in the 60s in the South. It's always so chilling to watch horrific events through a child's eyes.
    • 5/5
      A terrific read for teens and adults. This story deals with integration and the effect of it on one 13 year old teen. Her mother was one of the ladies that was dubbed a "cheerleader" or one of the many adults that taunted and disgraced Ruby Bridges upon her entry into an all white school.