Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys

This luminous and energetic picture book follows a young boy who takes his younger sister on her first trip to school in the Reconstruction-era South.

"Papa, Mama, can I go too?"

Virgie was always begging to go to school with us boys. My brothers had doubts. School was seven miles away--a long way from Mama. Virgie was scarcely big as a field mouse. How could she make the trip? And girls didn't really need school.

But I got to thinking: Virgie was free like we were. Free to learn. And didn't girls need to know how to write and add, too? Mama and Papa thought so. And one summer, they decided to do something about it. That was the year Virgie came to school with us boys. And she sure showed us

Author: Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 02/01/2000
Pages: 32
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 10.85h x 8.76w x 0.37d
ISBN: 9780689800764
Audience: Ages 4-8

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 2.5
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 32905 / Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys


Award: Coretta Scott King Award - Honor Book
Award: Carolyn W. Field Award - Winner
Award: South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award - Nominee


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 11/01/1999 pg. 525
Kirkus Review - Children 12/01/1999 pg. 1886
Booklist 12/15/1999 pg. 774
Publishers Weekly 12/20/1999 pg. 80
Booklist 02/15/2000 pg. 1109
School Library Journal 03/01/2000 pg. 208
Black Issues Book Review 05/01/2000 pg. 75
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2000 pg. 270 - Recommended, Satisfactory
ALA Notable Children's Books 01/01/2001 pg. 1374
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2000 pg. 270 - Recommended, Satisfactory

About the Author
Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard grew up hearing stories of her grandfather's childhood from her mother and later visited Jonesborough, Tennessee, a town seven miles from where her grandfather grew up. There, she drew inspiration for stories of her own.

E.B. Lewis is the award-winning illustrator of such books as Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard, which was a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book, and This Little Light of Mine. He received the Caldecott Honor for Coming on Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Talkin' About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by Nikki Grimes. E.B. Lewis lives in New Jersey, and you can visit him online at EBLewis.com.