This graphic novel was written by Congressman John Lewis, a key figure of the of the civil rights movement.

In this first book of the trilogy, we meet John Lewis in his office in 2009 as President Obama was about to take office. A woman and her two young children walk in and she is immediately taken aback when she sees John Lewis is actually there. All she wanted was to show her children his office, but they ended up beginning a lovely conversation about the past. In this conversation, we learn about John Lewis’ childhood growing up in rural Alabama. From there, the story continues on.

I loved absolutely everything about this gut-wrenching graphic novel.

Right from the very first illustration, I was hooked. Once I picked each of these books up and started reading, I could not put them down. Needless to day, the storylines in each book was incredibly well organized and perfectly paced. I loved all of the switches between present day and the past that occurred throughout!

The characters were all very well developed, especially for a history-based graphic novel. I am so embarrassed to say that some of these names were new to me. But I am very happy that I now know about them.

The artwork was absolutely stunning and the details were incredible. I loved that the illustrations were black and white because that really created an incredible tone for the story.

Of course, because of the topic, a lot of this was very hard to read and even more difficult to see in illustrated form. A lot of it was incredibly heartbreaking. But of course, it is such an important story to read.

I would very highly recommend this for all! This is another book that I would love to see on required reading lists in school.