The Story of Ruby Bridges

Title: The Story of Ruby Bridges

Author: Robert Coles

Illustrator: George Ford

Medium: Watercolor paintings/ acrylic ink

Genre: Picture Book – Biography

Theme: The story captures a girl who portrays amazing courage and faith during a time of hatred and prejudice.

Summary: The author retells an important event in American history, the 1960 story of the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. Ruby Bridges, a six year old faced a harsh mob everyday while attending an empty classroom and school due to the resistance to black and white children attending the same school.

Literary Elements:

The biography is presented in an episodic format capturing the significant event in history. The subject of the story, Ruby Bridges was portrayed as a heroic child who overcame obstacles of segregation by attending an all white school. She managed to walk without saying a word through the crowds shouting at her, pushing towards her, and threatening her. This models a child mature beyond her years in terms of how to respond to chaotic situations. However, the book only captures one event, which doesn’t explain Ruby besides her heroic act.

The writing style is engaging as the illustrations provide a sense of softness. The writing captures the reader into the story of Ruby Bridges but it is the illustrations that provide a calming sense of Ruby’s personality. Her calm response to people filled with hate is not only calming but brave and bold like the pink displayed in her dress. However, her facial expressions remained unchanged throughout the book, which makes me question if she ever showed fear during the actual event. The text and the illustrations also capture the time and place. For example as Ruby walked through the mobs, there are signs of ‘WHITE ONLY’ and ‘WHITE SCHOOL’ which presents the segregation mentality. It also presents the angry facial expressions of the white parents.

Even though the event is not explained in depth, it captures the time and place through signs and the expressions of the people. It also captures Ruby’s calm reaction to the hatred. However due to the episodic format, the reader is left wanting more information about what happened to Ruby and if white students ever went back to school.

Evaluation:

The story opens up with a quote from Ruby’s mother, “Our Ruby taught us all a lot. She became someone who helped change our country. She was part of history, just like generals and presidents are part of history. They’re leaders, and so was Ruby. She led us away from hate, and she led us nearer to knowing each other, the white folks and the black folks.” With that said, an actual quote from people within the life of Ruby portrays accuracy on the author’s part. Also, there are several quotes within the book from Ruby’s teacher, expressing her amazement of Ruby’s strength to go to school regardless of the mobs. The book is designed for younger children, so it does not portray detailed information about Ruby as a person.

With the setting and plot, Ruby’s story is integrated with the passing of desegregation law in 1960 and acted upon in New Orleans by a judge placing four black girls to go to two while elementary schools. Three girls went to one school and Ruby went to another. Within the afterword, it is mentioned how Ruby Bridges is still involved with the New Orleans Public School System and the author refers more questions to be directed towards the Ruby Bridges Educational Foundation, which shows authenticy of the information within the book.