Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down

by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney. 2010. New York: Little Brown and Company. (9780316070164). 

Author Website: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=2861

Illustrator Website: http://www.brianpinkney.net/

Media: watercolors and India ink on 300lb Arches paper

Awards and Honors: Carter G. Woodson Book Award, 2011; Jane Addams Book Award

Annotation: The story of how, in 1960, four college students took a stand against segregation by sitting down at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Personal Reaction:

    The husband and wife team of author Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrator Brian Pinkney have created an exceptional book in Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down. It's lyrical, it's inspiring and it's wonderfully illustrated. The history of the lunch counter sit-ins is well known, but the Pinkney's really make the story shine. The prose is poetic; Davis Pinkney weaves a creative extended metaphor centering on food and ends with a final recipe for integration- "Start with love... Add conviction... Mix black people with white people... Bake until golden... Serve immediately." The additional of inspiring quotes ("Be loving enough to absorb evil.", "We must... meet hate with love.") from Dr. King throughout the story is effective. Brian Pinkney employs loose, dynamic brush strokes and wide swaths of bold colors to create beautiful, impressionistic illustrations. Colorful and bright, Brian Pinkney's paintings vibrate with energy. The book includes a Civil Rights timeline and suggestions for further reading.