Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys

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Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys was written by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard and illustrated by E.B. Lewis. Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard was born in Baltimore, Maryland, The United States in December 27, 1927. This book has 32 pages and it was published by Simon Schuster Books for Young Reader in February 1st 2000.[1]

Summary

Lewis's airy portraits capture the look and rhythm of African American life just after the Civil War.[2] The story tells about a young African-American girl who really wants to go to school with her brothers. A girl named Virgie was always begging to go to school with us boys.

"Papa, Mama, can I go too?"

Virgie's brothers had doubts. The school was seven miles away -- a long way from Mama. Virgie was scarcely big as a field mouse. How could she make the trip? And girls didn't really need school. But she got the thinking: Virgie was free like everyone else. Free to learn. And didn't girls need to know how to write and add too? Mama and Papa thought so. And one summer, they decided to do something about it.[3]

Pros

Compilation of good comments can be seen on goodreads website. The readers mentioned that this is a wonderful historical fiction story about an African-American family of children, four boys and finally one girl, who have to put in a lot of dedication to go to school. It is suitable for the Children’s Picture Book Club for Black History Month “Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys” is a Coretta Scott King award-winning book by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard along with illustrations by E.B. Lewis. It is about a young African-American girl named Virgie who wanted so desperately to go to school with her brothers, even though they told her that she cannot go to school with them. It is certainly a great book about the power of being independent that you just cannot pass up.

Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard’s writing is simply amazing and inspiring as it details the hard trials that African-American girls have to deal with after the Civil War ended. The author's writing creates Virgie into a brave and independent female character as Virgie was determined to go to school at all costs and how she would not let any kind of obstacle stand in her path to get to school and that definitely sets a great example for many females who want to be brave and independent in their journeys through life.[1]

According to Publishers Weekly, the book is an easy flow of vernacular effortlessly propels the story, and Howard proves herself adept at plucking a large-scale episode from history and adapting it to the scale of a picture book. Lewis's (The Bat Boy and His Violin) luminous watercolors capture both the rhythms of C.C. and Virgie's rural existence and the story's emotional subtext, and his character studies fairly burst with life.[4]

Based on the true story of her relatives, Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard captures the passion that a young black girl felt about getting an education. Denied the opportunity to learn for so many generations, her family members embraced the opportunity to go to school, and one little girl found the courage to go to school even though it was not easy to do so.[5]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys. goodreads.com. Retrieved February 2nd, 2021
  2. Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys. bookreporter.com. Retrieved February 2nd, 2021
  3. Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys. amazon.com. Retrieved February 2nd, 2021
  4. Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys. publishersweekly.com. Retrieved February 2nd, 2021
  5. Jansen-Gruber, Marya. Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews. Retrieved February 2nd, 2021