As in Jay and the Marigold, the protagonist of Ride the Red Cycle is disabled, in this case due to a viral infection received when he was two years old. Eleven-year-old Jerome faces a number of obstacles, of which race is a relatively minor one. Confined to a wheelchair, he cannot speak without slurring his words, but he is determined to participate in a Labor Day parade. "Among the countless recent books about handicapped children," wrote Karen M. Klockner in Horn Book, Ride the Red Cycle "stands out for its psychological acuity and compassion without sentimentality."
Writes First Historical Novel
The great Chicago fire of 1871 forms the backdrop for Children of the Fire, whose main character is named Hallelujah because she was born on an Easter morning. The child of runaway slaves, Hallelujah is an orphan who grows through her experience in the vast conflagration that sweeps the city: "Selfish and callous at first," Zena Sutherland noted in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, "Hallelujah gains sympathetic insight during the course of the fire and the start of the rebuilding." According to a reviewer in Publishers Weekly, "Hallelujah emerges as a likeable, spunky heroine who discovers her self-worth during the course of events."
Robinet's Mississippi Chariot, as its name suggests, takes place farther south.
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