FORBIDDEN SCHOOLHOUSE: THE TRUE AND DRAMATIC STORY OF PRUDENCE CRANDALL AND HER STUDENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jurmain, Suzanne. 2005. FORBIDDEN SCHOOLHOUSE: THE TRUE AND DRAMATIC STORY OF PRUDENCE CRANDALL AND HER STUDENTS. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618473025

PLOT SUMMARY
In 1831, Prudence Crandall opened up a private boarding school for girls in Canterbury, Connecticut. The school catered to prominent and wealthy families until an African American girl named Sarah asked if she could attend Miss Crandall’s class. Even though Miss Crandall knows that teaching an African-American student in her all-white school will be extremely controversial, she accepts and invites Sarah to her school. She endures harassment, threats, vandalism and even jail, but is determined to not let anything stand in her way and fights to keep her school open.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Jurmain tells a story of a remarkable young woman named Prudence Crandall who, with opposition and hostility among her community, educated African-American girls at her school. This narrative account presents all the facts of Miss Crandall’s plight, strength and courage. Jurmain uses quotes from real people, accounts from trial journals and newspapers help tell this compelling story. This easy to read book is displayed with large font on glossy white pages. The colored photos shown, such as Miss Crandall’s schoolhouse and an old fashioned school desk her pupils used, take the reader back in time. Jurmain also includes an appendix which explains what happened with Miss Crandall’s pupils as well as other people mentioned in the book. Source notes, an extensive bibliography of sources, a detailed index which helps the reader find specific characters and events, end the book. Jurmain’s keeps Crandall’s memory alive by telling this historic account of this courageous and spirited woman who fought for what she believed in.

REVIEW EXCERPTS
Starred Review in Booklist: “Jurmain has plucked an almost forgotten incident from history and has shaped a compelling, highly readable book around it. Printed on thick, snowy stock and including a number of sepia-toned and color photographs as well as historical engravings, the book’s look will draw in readers.”

Review in Kirkus Reviews: “Jurmain adopts a storyteller’s voice to tell the tale, lacing it with excerpts from primary sources, but always locating readers in the emotional heart of the conflict. This makes for a fast-paced read.”

Review in School Library Journal: “This book offers a fresh look at the climate of education for Aftican Americans and women in the early 1800’s.”

CONNECTIONS
Students can read and study about woman who showed great courage and their accomplishments:
Katherine Martin. Women of Courage: Inspiring Stories from the Women Who Lived Them. ISBN 1577310934.

Other books about segregation/abolition:
Chang, Ina. A Separate Battle: Women and the Civil War. ISBN 0525673652
Haskins, Jim. Separate But Not Equal. ISBN 0590459104
Morrison,m Toni. Remember: The Journaey to School Integration. ISBN 061839740X