Showing posts with label Memoirs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memoirs. Show all posts

Monday, October 11, 2021

Five Stars for Thursday’s Children, a Memoir

 


Thursday’s Children, a book by an old friend, Elisabeth Pendley, is an unexpectedly compelling memoir of a young teacher at a disadvantaged elementary school in the South in the 1960s. Thursday’s Children left me distressed but hopeful. It is a fascinating window into that transitional period between segregation and integration, when blacks and whites—confronted with an upheaval in the old order—treated each other with suspicion, if not outright hatred. It is also a story of how a closed environment can be corrupted by indolence and lack of accountability. The author gives us individual portraits of each of the children—their problems and their progress. You find yourself rooting for this or that child to break through the incredible obstacles to success. Also interesting is the picture given of the manner in which human beings react to very difficult circumstances—some with apathy, some with anxiety, some with courage. I recommend Thursday’s Children to anyone wishing to understand more clearly the origin of some current prejudices that have persisted—and the effect those prejudices can have on children’s lives.

Find Thursday’s Children here:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Thursdays-Children-betrayed-defended-continues/dp/0578863812

My Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4282928554