For my third outside reading book I read Leon’s Story. Leon’s Story was written by Leon Walter Tillage. The genre is African American. The copyright date is 1997.

I recommend this book to middle school students. This book gives good information about African American’s lifestyles. It also tells people some of the hardships African Americans had with discrimination. African Americans were treated a lot differently than whites. African Americans had to fight for what they wanted. This book changes students understanding about African Americans during this time.

The lifestyles for African Americans were tough at times. In this book Leon’s family works for different families farming their crops. They often had hard times with money so they would have to move. For Leon’s birthday he would only get one present. Another hardship African Americans had to go to different schools than whites and even had different places to sit on the buses. They also had different water fountains. African American children in Leon’s Story would have to hide places or run when the whites school bus would drive by. If they didn’t hide or run they would often get screamed at or laughed at or hurt. The whites thought this was fun. Leon and some other African Americans boycotted for the same equal rights. There was violence from whites. Leon also had problems with members of the Ku Klux Klan. Even though African Americans had some hardships they still fought for what they believed in.