This Is Your Time

This Is Your Time
Ice Breaker
Breaking The Ice

The theme of today's juvenile nonfiction round up is ice
breakers: brave kids going into places where they'd previously been
excluded by reason of color or gender and paving their way for their
peers.

In 1960 Ruby Bridges became the first Black child to go to a
previously all white school in New Orleans. This tiny first grader
had to be escorted to and from school every day by federal marshals.
Her life was in danger from the crowds of angry segregationists who
threw things at her and threatened her. She and her teacher were the
only ones in the classroom. The white children's parents had pulled
them out of school.
Sixty years later Bridges wrote a love letter to today's
children in the form of a book, This Is Your Time. She shares her
painful and confusing early experiences. But she also talks about her
conversations with children all around the world who haven't learned
prejudice and the hope they give her. And she inspires kids to help
make change happen.
The black and white photographs complement the text
beautifully. The abusive crowds of irate segregationists are in vivid
contrast to the tiny, neatly dressed girl child.
Parents of young children, please share this book with your sons
and daughters and be ready to candidly answer why questions.

"When Mabel gets to the front
they send her away.
'Colored are not allowed,' they say.
It's 1930 and only white skaters
are allowed on the ice."
Mabel Fairbanks, protagonist of Rose Vina's ice breaker, had a
tempestuous early life. At eight she was orphaned and sent from the
Florida Everglades to New York City to live with a brother. At nine
she was homeless in the Big Apple.
Mabel's life began to turn around when a family took her in. On
a frozen lake she discovered a passion for figure skating. But when
that ice melted she was not allowed in a nearby ice rink because of
the color of her skin.
That was only the first obstacle Mabel faced in her mission to
make the world of ice skating competition open to Blacks. Sports
loving children will really enjoy this inspiring narrative.

In 1977 Manon Rheaume watched her brothers play ice hockey and
yearned to join them. Only that was a nonstarter. Ice hockey, along
with football and baseball, was considered guys only.
But one day the kids' team that Manon's dad coached was short a
goalie. Manon was sure she could fill in. She didn't have hockey
skates. But she had plenty of experience playing with her brothers
who always put her on goal.
Manon's first game made it clear that she loved the sport as
much as she thought she would and had the necessary talent to develop
through practice.
And the rest is herstory.
Sports loving kids will adore Angie Bullaro's Breaking The Ice.

On a purrrsonal note, Monday was the first day masks became optional
rather than mandatory at work. It was part of UMaine's new rules. We
got the news last Friday and had the weekend to make our decisions. I
wasn't at all surprised that most people opted to ditch. I also don't
blame them. It gets really hard to breathe. But I'm taking the yes
option. Doing tables means I'm in the floor interacting with between
six and eight hundred customers a shift as opposed to behind a
plexiglass shield or sequestered scrubbing pots. I'll unmask when
Anthony Fauci does--not one day sooner. I'm not angry with my
unmasked colleagues. I do think the rush to go back to "normal" is
premature, especially with rumors of a deltacron combining omicron's
contagiouness with delta's severity. (Jules)
We're still seeing snow. Isn't it supposed to be spring? That's what
the calendar says. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to my fellow still masking folks and
the scientists who are urging us to still exercise caution.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway





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