FEARLESS FREEDOM

Publication Date: August 19, 2013

$5.99 Ebook ISBNs:  978-0-9897207-0-0,                                                                                                                                           978-0-9897207-1-7, 978-0-9897207-2-4

$11.99 paperback ISBN: 9781492322719, 202 pages

Ebook and paperback available at: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and Smashwords.com                                                                  Paperback available at: Createspace.com/4427454 and through Ingram Content Group

More than anything, eleven-year-old Bernice Givens wants to be a freedom fighter in the civil rights movement that is sweeping the American South. She gets her chance when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. comes to Birmingham, Alabama, to start a campaign. But after what happens on the day she marches against segregation, Bernice spends her nights fending off bad dreams, her days avoiding the marches and all of her time hiding a shameful secret from her friends and family—that she is a deeply afraid.

During the historic spring and summer of 1963, with help from her family and her new friend Betsy, a blind girl from up North who faces a different kind of discrimination, Bernice struggles to understand fear and regain the courage to continue her fight against injustice.

“An engaging, evocative young adult novel about a preadolescent girl’s involvement in the civil rights movement in Birmingham… Bernice herself is about as appealing a heroine as one could hope for, a believable blend of childish naïveté and sophisticated ideology… A moving, triumphant novel encapsulating a young girl’s personal struggle for equality within the larger movement.” – Kirkus Reviews.

Fearless Freedom Excerpt:

    “What are those people doing?”

     “It looks like a protest,” Daddy said.

    My chest filled with pride at the sight of freedom fighters. Now, I thought, I’m going to see a real protest, not just read about it. When the group finished praying, they stood up ready to march. A red-faced policeman started shouting. “You folks do not have a permit to march. Disperse, or you will be arrested!”

    I held my breath. The people stayed put. The police stepped closer.

    I knew the protesters wouldn’t put up a fight. Freedom fighters went to jail for their cause. I was all set to watch the arrests, but then some people watching from the park started yelling and carrying on. The police raised their batons, and my heart jumped.

    “I think we’ve seen enough,” Mama said.

    I wanted to see more, but Daddy backed up the car and turned around. I twisted to see out the back window, but we drove away fast.

    “Those people are just stirring up trouble,” Mama said. She looked back at me. “I don’t want you anywhere near downtown until this thing is over with, you hear me?”

    “Yes, ma’am,” I said, but ever since I met my hero and heard him speak, I knew that downtown with the marchers was exactly where I wanted to be.

 

Corinne L. Gaile started out as a dancer, became an artist, and is now a writer of middle grade and young adult novels. Along the way, she taught sculpture at a university, curated art exhibitions, and lectured on art and culture in the African Diaspora. Corinne shares her home in Tampa, Florida, with a tortoiseshell cat named Brandie. She spends her free time traveling internationally and kayaking locally.

 

www.corinnelgaile.com ▪ corinnelgaile@yahoo.com ▪ 813 223-5079