A Friendship For Today by Patricia C. McKissack

From the Publisher

The year is 1954, the place is Missouri, and twelve-year-old Rosemary Patterson is about to make history. She is one of the first African American students to enter the white school in her town. Headstrong, smart Rosemary welcomes the challenge, but starting this new school gets more daunting when her best friend is hospitalized for polio. Suddenly, Rosemary must face all the stares and whispers alone. But when the girl who has shown her the most cruelty becomes an unlikely confidante, Rosemary learns important truths about the power of friendship to overcome prejudice.

Publishers Weekly

McKissack (Porch Lies) reaches into her own childhood to shape this immediate and affecting novel narrated by strong and smart Rosemary. She enters sixth grade in 1954, just after her Missouri town acts upon the Supreme Court school desegregation decision and closes the "colored school" the girl has attended. Since her best friend, J.J., contracts polio just before school starts, Rosemary is the only black child in her class at her new school. Her first day, she wears a pink dress with lace, while the other kids have on pants and tennis shoes ("She looks like one of those dressed-up monkeys they have at the zoo," a classmate says). And her assigned seat is right next to Grace, her neighborhood nemesis, who comes from a racist family ("They hate colored people and don't mind telling us"). The graceful narrative splices together several survival stories, as Rosemary copes with her peers' prejudice and her parents' disintegrating marriage, and J.J. endures grueling polio treatments. One of the tale's most poignant threads is the evolving friendship between Rosemary and Grace; in an especially incisive passage, after Grace confides that her abusive father believes white people are superior, Rosemary asks, "You know better, don't you?" to which Grace answers "Now I do." Rosemary replies, "That's what counts with me." A real, at times raw tale about a winning and insightful young heroine during a bittersweet era. Ages 9-12. (Jan.)

Children's Literature

A touching story about Rosemary Paterson, a young African American girl about to be the first black student to enter an all-white school in her town after the Supreme Court of the United States declared segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. There is just enough history in A Friendship for Today to keep it interesting without getting bogged down in details. Besides dealing with the problem of segregation, Rosemary's best friend is diagnosed with polio, her parents are on the verge of divorce, and Grace Hamilton, the neighborhood bully who comes from a family of racists, is in her elementary class. McKissack's writing is flawless and filled with wonderful descriptive passages, such as "It was so quiet in class you could hear an ant crawling on cotton." There are some wonderful exchanges between classmates when Rosemary is accused of stealing a sweater. In the midst of the chaos, weaving like a thread through her life, the most unlikely friendship develops between Rosemary and Grace. This is a marvelous book, and a first-rate example of the courage and fortitude expressed by a young girl during oppressive times. There is a lot to learn here.

Alan Review

A brood of neighborhood enemies and parents on the brink of divorce should be the bulk of 12-year-old Rosemary Patterson's worries. But there is one more thing looming: sixth grade at one of the nation's first racially integrated schools. Loosely based on author Patricia McKissack's own childhood experience growing up during the monumental moments of the Civil Rights era, A Friendship for Today is about the tenacity of a young trailblazer and the ability of friendship to overcome obstacles. Compounding Rosemary's troubles, her best friend J.J. is stricken with polio just before school begins, leaving Rosemary as the only black student in her class at a resistant elementary school. Then, walking into room 123 on the first day, Rosemary is faceto- face with Grace the Tasteless, her sworn enemy and a known racist. However, though it takes a series of incidents to bond the girls, eventually they form a friendship stronger than the forces that threaten to pull it apart. Friendship is an artfully told story that brings the brimming tension of the 1950s to life. Reviewer: Jennifer Funk

Gerry LarsonCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

Gr 5-8
McKissack dishes up a palatable blend of fact and fiction in her semiautobiographical story of Rosemary Patterson's pivotal sixth-grade year (1954-'55). The landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision closed the doors of Rosemary's colored school in Kirkland, MO, and dispersed students into two white elementary schools. Determined to prove she does not need remediation, Rosemary excels academically and refuses to be racially intimidated or stereotyped. An unlikely friendship with mean Grace Hamilton, labeled "white trash" by snobby classmates, opens Rosemary's eyes to shared experiences of prejudice, parental strife, peer pressure, and loneliness. Both girls develop a mutual respect for the hardships they face. Rosemary gets emotional support and comfort from storekeeper Mr. Bob, an ex-Tuskegee Airman; her independent, enterprising seamstress mother; her fair-minded and compassionate teacher; and Rags, a rescued, injured cat that finally emits a "meow." As her parents grapple with marital problems and her polio-stricken best friend, J.J., struggles to walk again, Rosemary learns the value of tolerance and perseverance. A wealth of historical references, from civil rights to polio vaccine to early TV, is embedded in the narrative. Readers will enjoy the protagonist's spunky, resilient response to adversity and her candid, often amusing observations of human nature.

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