Amazon.com Review
A Thousand Never Evers , a debut novel by Shana Burg, creates a convincing portrait of the South during the Civil Rights Movement. The book follows a year in the life of Addie Ann Pickett, a girl on the verge of her early teens in Kuckapoo, Mississippi in 1963. Addie Ann goes through some of the biggest changes of her young life just as the whole world around her is changing. On the one hand, she's an ordinary girl: she babysits, she enjoys school, and has crushes. On the other hand, everything Addie Ann knows about her world is crashing down as she begins to understand more about what is really going on (in her family and in her town), her place in history as she forms her own opinions and takes personal action. Addie Ann's voice is convincing and compelling, and her story provides an important perspective on the impact of tremendous social changes occurring in the South during the early 1960s.
Author Shana Burg's father was a civil rights attorney, and she grew up hearing stories about Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, and the March on Washington. Mining those stories, as well as conducting a fair amount of research and drawing upon her experiences as a teacher, paid off. Addie Ann is a courageous and memorable character--one with whom younger readers should be able identify. Her experiences can truly give readers a sense of what it might have felt like to live in those historic times. (Ages 9-12) --Heidi Broadhead
From School Library Journal
Grade 5β8βBurg's debut novel, set in 1963, is told through the eyes of Addie Ann Pritchett, a seventh-grade African American. She finds herself embroiled in the Civil Rights Movement that affects her family and her little town in the Mississippi Delta in profound and personal ways. To start, there's the death of the richest man in town, who bequeaths his land to everyone in Kuckachoo so that, "together whites and Negroes shall plant a garden." Addie and her mother work as household help for a young couple in town, where the girl overhears hateful remarks made by members of the Garden Club, who have no intention of sharing the produce from Old Man Adams's land across racial lines. Meanwhile, Addie's brother accidentally breaks the leg of a white bully who is tormenting her cat and flees into the bayou. Elias disappears and is feared drowned. Weaving in and out of these serious concerns are the normal insecurities of a girl on the brink of adolescence. Addie's relationships with her family and friends are interesting and well developed. The civil rights issues that come to a head as Addie's uncle is arrested and in danger of being lynched will make the injustices of the era vivid for today's readers. The protagonist moves from protected innocence out to the larger, often-threatening world and finds strength in her family, her community, and herself. This is not a perfect bookβsome of the dialogue seems stiff-but it is a compelling story that doesn't oversimplify complex situations.β Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY
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