Rating: 5 stars

“The Soccer Fence” is a picture book by Phil Bildner, illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson, It’s about a boy in South Africa who wants to play soccer on a real soccer field — but apartheid makes doing that difficult.

When Hector practices soccer, it is barefoot and with an egg-shaped ball in their ghetto. When he travels to the white part of town, from outside a gated field, he is able to watch white boys play with a real soccer ball on a real, grass-covered field. When he calls to them, they don’t even acknowledge his existence. In the beginning of the book, Hector looks like he is about four years old.

Years later, when Mandela is freed from prison and apartheid crumbles, Hector is again at the gated field, but the boys still don’t acknowledge him. When the ball goes over the fence, Hector kicks it back to one of the boys — “the blond boy” — he, too, turns away without even a “thank you.”

But both boys are avid soccer fans, and when the team they root for makes it to the finals, they both go to the game. Time has passed, and they now look like they are in their early teens. They see each other at the stadium, and for the first time, the white boy responds to Hector. When their team wins, both Hector and the other boy lead the lines of fans around the stadium.

The next time Hector sees the boy on the soccer field, the white boy opens the gate and invites Hector to play. Hector tells him that when he plays, he likes to “be” Shoes Moshoeu, a black player on the national team. The other boy says his name is Chris, but he likes to “be” Mark Fish, a white player on the same team.

And they play soccer.

Included briefly in the story is a bit about Mandela and how the blacks in South Africa finally got their freedom. The end pages are filled with nonfiction information about the history of South Africa and an “Apartheid Timeline.” It’s fascinating (and repugnant) but for students who are studying race relations in the USA, this section will be of great interest — and very important.

While the story line is rather improbable, that aspect can also be used to generate discussion in classes studying discrimination: “Do you think prejudice is that easily overcome?”

Jesse Joshua Watson creates illustrations in bright colors that help the reader differentiate between the dusty shantytown where Hector lives (rich ochers) and the rich, affluent suburb where his mother works and he watches the white boys play soccer (bright greens). Other scenes are also painted in bright colors — but most telling is the final page, wherein the two boys run to play soccer together. It’s done in green with an ocher sky. The two boys, much older than they are in the beginning of the book, are finally playing together, and the colors of each are also together sharing a page.

This book is not a book for young readers, but rather for children from third grade and up. The illustrations are both bright and powerful, and teachers will appreciate the nonfiction information provided.

“The Soccer Fence” would be a great companion book to “Ruth and the Green Book” by Calvin Alexander Ramsey.

Rating: 5 stars

In “Ruth and the Green Book,” Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Gwen Strauss take the readers back to the 1950s and the time of Jim Crow. This lovely picture book is for older readers; its first person narrative perfectly and painfully paints the hurt and confusion of a young black girl leaving her Chicago neighborhood for the first time.

Ruth and her parents are on their way in their brand new car to visit relatives in Alabama. Ruth brings along her stuffed teddy bear for company even through she acknowledges that she’s almost too old for him.

On the way, they encounter prejudice. Lots and lots of prejudice.

Ruth says, “It seemed like there were ‘White Only’ signs everywhere outside of our Chicago neighborhood.” A gas station that sold them gas but wouldn’t allow them to use the bathroom and a hotel that wouldn’t rent them a room angered her father, but they still managed to sing their way past restaurants with signs in the window refusing them service.

When they stayed in Tennessee with a friend, he told them about Jim Crow and that things were going to get worse. He also told Ruth to look out for Esso gas stations because the people there would treat them fairly. It was at an Esso station that Ruth’s family learned about the Green Book, a collection of places and businesses that welcomed blacks.

They bought a copy and it became Ruth’s responsibility to find places for them to eat and sleep. And that’s where the book becomes joyful in spite of the harsh realities of discrimination in the 1950s.

When they reached the first “tourist home,” the owner, Mrs. Melody, welcomed them. “It was like coming home,” Ruth explains. They met other travelers and made friends and found there was a support system.

As the plot unfolds, Ruth not only finds out about Jim Crow and the ugly truth about discrimination, she also grows up. She is in charge of the Green Book, and when she meets a little boy who is traveling with his mother and is away from home for the first time, she decides that he needs Brown Bear more than she does.

When they are almost at their destination, Ruth reflects, “It made me sad that some people were mean to Negroes. But it helped to know that good black people all over the country had pitched in to help each other. It felt like I was part of one big family!”

Other authors have written on this subject. “The Watsons Go To Birmingham — 1963” is a middle grade book about a family from Michigan visiting relatives in Birmingham during the church bombing. “The Gold Cadillac” by Mildred D. Taylor is an easier chapter book about a family with a new car and the troubles they encounter traveling south.

These three books would make a great study on discrimination in America for a fourth or fifth grade classroom. Each book tells a slightly different story — but the message is the same. Other books on the subject of discrimination featuring a more modern setting include “The Jacket” by Andrew Clements and “Crossing Jordan” by Adrian Fogelin — both superb books.

I would be remiss not to mention the beautiful illustrations by Floyd Cooper in “Ruth and the Green Book.” The colors are soft and the lines are blurred. It almost looks like pointillism (drawn with dots), and the results are stunning in a quiet kind of way. The manner in which Cooper evokes emotion in the faces of the people in the book is amazing. The readers can feel the joy watching the family sing in the car in spite of rejection. Ruth’s face mirrors her feelings of hurt, and the most priceless expression is that of the little boy receiving Ruth’s stuffed animal. It’s beautiful.

I strongly recommend this book for every classroom from third through sixth grade. It’s an easy read for the higher grades, but it effectively demonstrates the hurt and sadness of discrimination.

Please note: This review is based on the final hardcover book provided by Carolrhoda Books (and the Lerner Publishing Group) for review purposes.