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47th out of 260 books
—
76 voters
My Mother the Cheerleader
Acts of courage come in all shapes and sizes.
In the tumultuous New Orleans of 1960, thirteen-year-old Louise Collins finds her world turned upside down when a stranger from the North arrives at her mother's boarding-house. Louise's mother spends her mornings at the local elementary school with a group of women known as the Cheerleaders, who harass the school's first black...more
In the tumultuous New Orleans of 1960, thirteen-year-old Louise Collins finds her world turned upside down when a stranger from the North arrives at her mother's boarding-house. Louise's mother spends her mornings at the local elementary school with a group of women known as the Cheerleaders, who harass the school's first black...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
April 24th 2007
by Harper Teen
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I didn't like this one. It's an important story that I didn't think was told particularly well. It was published by the Harper teen label, but I don't think it would work well for many teens. The narrator is a twelve year old girl, but there are also references to blacklisted communists and Joe McCarthy that would fly right over the heads of most of the 12 to 18 crowd. And the boozy, promiscuous mom, the redneck rapist who lynches the northern agitator, the salt of the earth black maid whose ang...more
My Mother the Cheerleader
By Robert Sharenow
This book is fantastic. One of my all-time favorite books is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and I couldn’t help but find similarities in this book. I especially loves the themes of belonging, love, family, forgiveness, and honesty. Louise’s relationship with her mother is heartbreaking and beautiful. My favortie part of the book was when she took her daughter’s hand as they walked away from the school. So good. This book has wonderful messages...more
By Robert Sharenow
This book is fantastic. One of my all-time favorite books is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and I couldn’t help but find similarities in this book. I especially loves the themes of belonging, love, family, forgiveness, and honesty. Louise’s relationship with her mother is heartbreaking and beautiful. My favortie part of the book was when she took her daughter’s hand as they walked away from the school. So good. This book has wonderful messages...more
This is a young adult novel set in the 9th ward of New Orleans during the time of Ruby Bridges. The story is told by a young girl, Louise Collins, who is trying to make sense of why she can't go to school anymore and why people, especially her mom, are part of the protest. It is a very insightful story of the people and the mindset of the times. As Lynne Rae Perkins says, "It's so easy to look back at another time and place and say to each other,'what on earth were those people thinking?' but wh...more
Mar 04, 2009
Beth
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Young Adults, Historical fiction
Recommended to Beth by:
ALA YALSA Best Books 2008
Sharenow’s debut novel is tough to categorize in terms of intended audience. The book deals with some very mature themes (rape, domestic violence, racially motivated violence, child abandonment) but the protagonist, Louise Collins, is still quite young when the book takes place in 1960. Since the book is told in the present tense, it’s awkward on page 55 when Louise describes her mother has having “basked in the attention like she was strutting down the red carpet at the Academy Awards” as there...more
Sharenow takes the reader into the world of white supremacists like the Cheerleaders, the women who jeered at six-year-old Ruby Bridges as she walked into her elementary school in New Orleans's Ninth Ward in 1960. Louise is thirteen, and her mother Pauline has pulled her out of school to protest desegregation. Pauline spends her mornings screaming with the Cheerleaders and her afternoons drinking herself into oblivion while Louise runs her boarding house, Rooms on Desire.
When Morgan Miller, a Je...more
When Morgan Miller, a Je...more
This is not the book it could be. It is Young Adult but the mother, along with being an anti-integration cheerleader in the 9th ward nola, is a floozy alcoholic who owns a boarding house. One of the locals, an angry man, visits to manhandle and have sex with her regularly enough that the 13 yr old knows all about it. He appears at the 13 yr olds bedroom door undressed and threatens to join her in bed. He returns at a pivotal moment in the book with a drunk friend to beat and gang rape the mother...more
I had misgivings about this book because of its title, but I actually really enjoyed it. There was so much more too it then I originally thought there would be. Little Lousie is such an honest narrator and her innocence and view of life are what allows this books topic to be seen so clearly. I believe the "cheerleaders" were portrayed well in this book and it was easier to understand their perspective. By making Ruby Bridges more of a symbol then actual character I believe if gave this book hist...more
I was not expecting this book to be about what it was about. I took it at face value because of the title. However, it is not about rah-rah type cheerleaders, like I assumed. It is about the "cheerleaders" that stood out, shouting in protest against civil rights movements. The movements detailed in this story are those at the William Frantz Elementary School. Louise Collins's mother is one of the cheerleaders that has taken her child out of school and protests as the six year-old Ruby Bridges wa...more
This book is nothing like the title portrays. The "cheerleaders" being talked about here are the women who stood outside of the school little Ruby Bridges attended and would yell at her and throw things at her because they did not support integration. The narrator of the story is the daughter of one of these cheerleaders and it is her story about what was going on at the time when schools were being integrated. This is a great book and really makes you think about the type of person you would be...more
What a great book! It is about a girl, Louise, whose mother is a cheerleader-a group of women who hate integration and are taunting this little girl Ruby. This book takes you on a journey of what it would be like to live in the ninth-ward in New Orleans in the 1950's. This books is from the white person;s perspective, which is quite different, and it helps you understand why people dis-liked integration so much. I didn't give this book a five, because it was slow to start, and then got interesti...more
I was surprised by this book. It's not one that I would've picked up on my own, but I'm glad it was assigned for our class.
With segregation being such a hot topic in our nations history, it was nice to read a book written from a child's perspective. Her naivety is refreshing, because, while Louise expresses that she knows it is wrong in the end, she is somewhat undecided throughout the majority of the book. I loved her little "spy" adventures because they almost reminded me of myself when I was...more
With segregation being such a hot topic in our nations history, it was nice to read a book written from a child's perspective. Her naivety is refreshing, because, while Louise expresses that she knows it is wrong in the end, she is somewhat undecided throughout the majority of the book. I loved her little "spy" adventures because they almost reminded me of myself when I was...more
I really liked this book. Even though the main character, Louise, was just a little girl, I felt I could really relate what she was going through. At the beginning of the book, I kind of hated her mother, and thought she was a jerk who didn't care about her daughter. I found myself hating the cheerleaders, not only for the horrible things they were doing/saying to Ruby Bridges, but also because I felt like they were just protesting every day to have something to do. This book brought up feelings...more
May 30, 2012
Drew Nevitt
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
teens and children of baby-boomers
Shelves:
young-adult-lit
Snap, forgive if this review is short, but I had just written it and my internet cut out and it was deleted when I sent it.
The book is good. I gave it two stars because I wanted more story about the communist jewish guest the family is hosting. I liked his character because he stood up for what's right in the face of pain and scrutiny. He cared for others and believed in equality, which was his reason for believing in communism, instead of it being fueled by an unpatriotic seed.
The characters a...more
The book is good. I gave it two stars because I wanted more story about the communist jewish guest the family is hosting. I liked his character because he stood up for what's right in the face of pain and scrutiny. He cared for others and believed in equality, which was his reason for believing in communism, instead of it being fueled by an unpatriotic seed.
The characters a...more
My Mother the Cheerleader is a wonderful historical fiction piece that addresses issues with family, self, racism, and sex. The main character in the book, Louise Collins, is a shy thirteen-year-old that shows incredible courage as she stands up to people much more powerful than herself. Her mother, a "Cheerleader", goes to her elementary school so she can heckle Ruby Bridges, a young black girl going to an integrated school. Louise tells her side of the story and what it's like to have a mother...more
Mar 11, 2012
Alyssa Peters
added it
Alyssa Peters
Multicultural
This book is set in the south in New Orleans. The story is told from the main character Louise’s point of view. Louise is a thirteen-year old girl who lives with her mother and their housekeeper. A man named Morgan comes to stay with them. Louise’s mother works at a beauty shop. When she is not home, Louise just thinks she is at work. This is not the case all the time. Louise’s mom is a “cheerleader.” The “cheerleaders” are woman who are protesting at the school that L...more
Multicultural
This book is set in the south in New Orleans. The story is told from the main character Louise’s point of view. Louise is a thirteen-year old girl who lives with her mother and their housekeeper. A man named Morgan comes to stay with them. Louise’s mother works at a beauty shop. When she is not home, Louise just thinks she is at work. This is not the case all the time. Louise’s mom is a “cheerleader.” The “cheerleaders” are woman who are protesting at the school that L...more
Historical fiction, 8th grade -- some sections of more mature content. Set in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the story follows Louise and her mother, Pauline, who operate a boarding house during the time of desegregation. Far from being a positive rah-rah kind of cheerleader, Pauline is one of a group of racist women who protest the integration of their local elementary school every morning. They are a nasty, vicious group who think nothing of throwing food and insults at Ruby Bridges, who is on...more
The title of this book makes it seem as if it is going to be some vapid chick-lit book. It definitely is not. The story is set in the 9th ward of New Orleans in 1960 when Ruby Bridges becomes the first black girl to attend the same school as the narrator, 13 year old Louise. The white folk are outraged and there are daily protests at the school as well as a withdrawal of all the white students from the school. Louise's mother is one of the many women protesters who are dubbed The Cheerleaders du...more
I liked it for the skill with which it was written, and the importance of it's message, but didn't like it, at the same time. I know the author wasn't condoning wrong things- his message was the opposite, but I hated having this feeling of, "This is so wrong! This has to be resolved! Somebody do something!" while reading it. I also didn't like that parts of it had a "harriet the spy" kind of feel, but much less light-hearted. It kind of ruined Harriet the Spy for me. I guess it's good for adoles...more
This book surprised every idea that I had towards it in a good way. First of all, I was a bit thrown by the title, "My Mother the Cheerleader" because who wants to read some fluffy book about a teenage cheerleader who gets pregnant, right? Wrong, this book wasn't anything about what I thought it was going to be about. The story, as told mostly from ther perspective of young Louise Collins addresses controversial topics such as racism, hate crimes, identity issues and death that will keep you tur...more
So I know what you're thinking. The word Cheerleader is in the title, why would I want to read that? I know, because I thought the same thing. At least until I opened the book. It turns out cheerleader isn't the popular girl in a short skirt waving colorful paper in the air. This mother was one of the cheerleaders, as they were called, who stood outside the school where Ruby Bridges first attended a white school. They would rant, jeer, and taunt her every day she first arrived.
The main characte...more
The main characte...more
This book was very interesting to me. I have read about this time period where blacks were just starting to gain political freedom and how much the country was against it because of prejudices and how they were brought up and taught by their parents. But I have never read a book that was so upfront and showed the matter so bluntly. It was definitely an eyeopener. I think because of my preconceived notions, the one scene that really hit me was that even though Louisa Collins' mother was a white,...more
Wow... This book is truly eye opening to the filth that went on during the civil rights movement. When I first started this book, I thought it might be a little young more of a tween age. The girl is 13 in the book and it shows. She is mature for her age but she does do 13 year old things. I also thought she was a little stockerish. After thinking about it though, I came to the conclusion that there are deeper meanings to everything she does.
Violence- 3. There are some images of pure hatred towa...more
Violence- 3. There are some images of pure hatred towa...more
Louise Collins is our young heroine. She lives in the mid-1900s with her immature mom in a boarding house that they run in New Orleans, and change is in the air: integration of blacks and whites in public schools has just been undertaken, and Louise's mother has joined the throng of women known as the Cheerleaders that gather each morning to yell at and threaten six-year-old Ruby Bridges, the only colored girl entering the school. This seems to be the natural balance of life until the Collins' b...more
A book about the 1960's and the effect of little Ruby bridges attending a previously white school. What makes this different than the other books I've read is it is from the white side of things. This story follows Louise a preteen yanked out of school because of her mother horror that black people attend her daughter's school. The mom's protest this by screaming at Ruby every morning. They are dubbed the 'cheerleaders'. Louise is learning who she is and more about the feelings of the south arou...more
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. "Cheerleader" is a word that can be a turn off for a lot of people. My advice: scratch it off the title and make everyone read it. Great book. It was a nice change to be able to read about integration from this point of view. It gave me the opportunity to see this historic event in a new light while still keeping the history very accurate. I always like a book that I am learning from at the same time I am enjoying it. Can't beat that.
Whenever I read books...more
Whenever I read books...more
This is another book where I wish I could rate with half stars. It would've gotten 4.5 stars! The only reason why it didn't get all 5 was because it was a bit too easy of a read. It was recommened to me by our school librarian (who hasn't read it yet) to see what I thought. She was told it would be good 'high school' material, and while the topic could be geared toward older kids, the writing could not. It could easily be read by 6th - 8th graders.
Now, the book itself is interesting because all...more
Now, the book itself is interesting because all...more
I loved this book. At first I was hesitant because of the title, like others I believed it wasn't going to be a great novel. I was wrong. And I'm hardly ever wrong! Just kidding. But it was a great perspective on the 50's era and the problems involving blacks and segregation. I liked it a lot because it took a different spin on that era. I have always heard in history books the sympathy towards those being hated on. This showed the time for what it really was and how it effected both sides. It w...more
Louise's mother is a cheerleader, but not the peppy kind you'd find at a football game. Her mother joins many other women outside of William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans to protest the integration of schools in the south. Louise works to run "Rooms on Desire," the boarding house her mother hasn't been paying as much attention to. Then Morgan arrives from New York, and Louise wakes up from her apathy about many things. A mystery, a tragic twist, and hope drive the story.
I did not parti...more
I did not parti...more
A very different perspective on a great turning point in our nation's history. Well researched and brilliantly written. A prime example of how sometimes the small steps are just as important than the grandest of gestures, if not more-so. This book really gets you thinking about peoples different perspectives of truth and is also a window into the eyes of a young teen girl in the middle of a world she is trying desperately to understand.
THINGS TO BE AWARE OF:
(1-10 scale 1 being least 10 being mos...more
THINGS TO BE AWARE OF:
(1-10 scale 1 being least 10 being mos...more
A solid 3.5 stars.
The book follows Louise and her mother, who is a cheerleader against desegregation in 9th ward New Orleans during the time of Ruby Bridges. The story moved quick and I think the characters were done relatively well.
I think, though, Sharenow -- who is a writer and producer for A&E -- misses an opportunity here. He picked an interesting time, place, and perspective, but he seems to not delve deeply enough. I don't think we get enough of the story. We get the icing and no cake...more
The book follows Louise and her mother, who is a cheerleader against desegregation in 9th ward New Orleans during the time of Ruby Bridges. The story moved quick and I think the characters were done relatively well.
I think, though, Sharenow -- who is a writer and producer for A&E -- misses an opportunity here. He picked an interesting time, place, and perspective, but he seems to not delve deeply enough. I don't think we get enough of the story. We get the icing and no cake...more
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Robert Sharenow is an award-winning writer and television producer. His first novel, My Mother the Cheerleader, was chosen as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and a VOYA Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers.
He is also an Emmy Award-winning television producer and serves as senior vice preside...more
More about Robert Sharenow...
He is also an Emmy Award-winning television producer and serves as senior vice preside...more
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Feb 19, 2008 07:36pm