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

Pinckney, A. (2010). Sit-In:  How four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down. NY,NY: Little Brown ISBN 9780316070164

Author:  Andrea Davis Pinckney

Author Website:  No author website

Illustrator:  Brain Pinckney

Illustrator Website:  www.brianpinkney.net/

Media Used: Watercolor and Black Ink

Publisher:  Little Brown

Year of Publication:  2010

ISBN:  9780316070164

Annotation: The author recounts how the historic lunch counters sit-ins of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement got its start.  Four young men, inspired by Dr. King’s words, decide to ask to be served at Woolworths and start a political movement.

Personal Reaction: This book gives an up close look at how four college students started a political movement.  It is a part of history that is recorded but little is known about the actual beginning.  The author makes you feel as if you are there with the students in their determination and perseverance.  The illustrations with the words of Dr. King help to show how the men kept themselves in control throughout the ordeal.  I found the author’s Civil Rights Timeline at the back of the book to be very useful in putting a perspective on the period.  Most interesting was the fact that from the start of the sit-ins to the actual desegregation of Woolworth’s lunch counter was only six months. This book would be an excellent teaching tool for history classes.

Illustration: Pinckney’s impressionist watercolors with black line outlines help to define the narrative and lend emotion to the scenes.  The four young men sitting straight and tall and just waiting to be served has a chilling effect as the police officer approaches.  As the reader learns of the spread of the sit-in we see more people at the counters until finally there is a long trailing counter with people to illustrate the growth of the movement.  The full page illustrations opposite text with the words in larger type create a sense of time and place that helps the reader be drawn into this historic moment in our country’s history.

Use of Media: The illustrator sets the picture with vivid colorful impressionist pictures.

Use of literary device: The author uses repetition and alliteration with sitting, waiting and wanting.  There is allusion illustrated with words “Be loving enough to absorb the evil” and you see the backs of the young men sitting at the counter as the policeman approaches with his baton. The author sets up a rhythm in the text with simple sentences like “…those kids wouldn’t move.  They didn’t move. Until they were served, they refused.”