VIOLA DESMOND WON'T BE BUDGED!

In 1946 Nova Scotia, Viola Desmond thought to pass an afternoon at the movies while waiting for her car to be repaired. Desmond was the owner of her own beauty salon and founder of the Desmond School of Beauty Culture to train black students. She sat downstairs at the Roseland Theatre, although black people were supposed to sit in the balcony. She refused to move, was arrested and held in jail overnight. Throughout her trial and subsequent appeal, no one would admit that this was a racial issue. Instead the judge focused on the tiny differential in ticket price and fined her $20, then worth ten times what it is today. Using a cadenced style that echoes the oral tradition of African-Canadians, Warner recounts the story simply, allowing children to see raw discrimination for what it was. Rudnicki uses bold acrylics in vivid colors to tell the story. He captures the style, dress and look of the period, and the flap copy notes his images were based on archival photographs. An historical note with a couple of bibliographic citations offers more background. (Picture book. 6-9)