WHEN THE SCHOOLS SHUT DOWN

Yolanda Gladden was born in modest circumstances in Farmville, Virginia, in 1954, the same year the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court case ended school segregation in the U.S.

This third-person biography opens with an account of Gladden’s formative years, including happy times spent at her Uncle Tank’s convenience store, in church on Sundays, and watching her mother sew. In her close-knit community, young Yolanda learned important lessons of resilience and faith, and her family instilled pride in her. As she grew older, she “noticed the world around her was divided into two distinct colors: black and white.” By 1959, Yolanda was school-aged, but White lawmakers in her county still hadn’t implemented the federal mandate to integrate classrooms; rather, they had closed all schools. The rest of the book highlights the response of Farmville’s Black community, which included protests and the establishment of empowering grassroots schools for Black children. While the book shines a light on the so-called “Lost Generation,” a piece of U.S. history that many readers will be unfamiliar with, Gladden’s personal and emotional experience of the life-changing events gets lost in the largely fact-driven, outward-looking narrative. Morris’ collaged tissue paper and digital art is dynamic and excels at depicting multiple scenes per spread. Most characters are Black.

Edifying and worth the read despite some flaws of execution.