This is an excellent story to begin teaching children about race, Civil Rights Movement, and desegregation. I never heard of Susan Clark, but thanks to this book I will begin doing more research on her and sharing this story with my children. A great example of a young girl pursuing her right to an education.

4.5 stars.

Susie Clark: The Bravest Girl You've Ever Seen is a wonderful introduction to the life of Susie Clark, "the first Black student in the United States to integrate a public school through a court order" in 1868. Her story is one that not many know, but it's well worth learning! It's on the long side for a picture book, but with a rhyming scheme that flows well and large print it's still very friendly for younger readers. It's engaging, interesting, and very informative. Susie Clark and her family are certainly historical figures to look up to. Recommended!

This rhyming book is a good look at integration history that is not talked about. I feel the story connection from page to page could be a bit better, but overall it's a good read.

Thank you so much to BookBaby and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Susie Clark a young girl of history leads the way in 1868 as she becomes the first black student in a previously all white school. With her dad fighting the court for the rights to integrate the schools, her mom’s courage passed down to her and the strength of her ancestors she does something no other had done at that time.

I really enjoyed this picture book it was so informative and detailed and it shared of a very important event during history for when black students in a small town in Iowa alone were finally granted permission to join a high education school. To which Susie went on to excel within.

Young Susie was very apprehensive about joining after such a bad experience previously, but after a sweet talk with her grandmother and her mother, she found all the strength and courage that she needed and managed to hold her head up high and go into that school ready to prove why they fought so hard in the first place. It was so beautiful to read that though it was scary, though it was tough she was making a huge step for others and for herself.

This was done so sweetly with lots of care and dedication, it’s written in a really nice way with sweet illustrations throughout. It’s tells of an important piece of history, you get lots of extra information at the end which is always a great added bonus. This a great book to read with your children or in a school to learn of what happened and how now things have changed because of Susie.

This was such a beautiful story about Susie Clark and how she and her family pioneered desegregated schools much earlier than the rest of the US would. I found the illustrations and the writing beautiful and would definitely recommend this book as a way to discuss race with children.

As an Iowan who grew up near Muscatine, I had not heard of Susie Clark before finding this book! I love the illustrations and how the author explains such a serious topic in ways children can understand! I plan on reading this with my second grader and having a discussion about the message.

This picture book biography is about a teenage girl who was the first person to integrate an all-white school due to court-ordered integration. This story takes place almost a century before the Brown v. Board case, and shares a hidden history about this girl's experiences. Parts of this story are directly history-based, and others are fictionalized, with the author imagining the kind of encouragement this girl would have received from her family members. An author's note at the end shares more context and information, and clarifies which elements are fictional.

The illustrations are charming, and the poetic text mostly flows well, although the meter is sometimes off. I personally would have preferred for this to have been in prose instead of verse, because I felt that parts of the story were confusing or lacked context. Because the author had to fit everything within her rhyme scheme, she was more limited in what she could say and couldn't explain as many things to the reader. Nonetheless, the author's voice is warm and caring, and the book highlights an important but little-known story.

Susie the Brave was also Susie the Queen who was born in a town called Muscatine.

There is got two difference school at the Muscatine town. First one had nice books and room to play. The other one was way up muddy hill and far away. But Susie like the muddy trail because its way way adventure to go.

One day, Susie thought about the school system that separate the people. The system she wanted is equal for everyone and where all people believed: no matter your race, you have the chance to achieve.

After that, Susie went to higher school. She is not happy because her color skin was brown and the school doesnt want them there and its isnt just fair.

Read the book to know more how Susie solves the problem with her courage.

Beautiful story and illustrations. Wonderful history lesson. It tells the story of Susie Clark who lived in Iowa and was the first of her race to attend an integrated high school in 1868. So many things to love about this book. She was blessed with an amazing family. Her Father helped pass the law in Iowa that schools would be integrated. Susie was terrified. Her Mother told her of coming from Africa and helped her with this fear by weaving special seeds that had originated in Africa to remind her of her ancestry and the struggles already overcome. The illustrations were an added bonus to an already rich story. Highly recommend. I received a free advance reader copy, and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I enjoyed learning about Susie Clark and her equally inspirational family and I would definitely like to find out and read more about them. I also found the notes from the author, at the end of the book, really interesting and I almost wish the whole book had been written in prose. I found the rhyme to be inconsistent and it didn't flow for me at all, which detracted from the story.

Susie Clark:The Bravest Girl You’ve Ever Seen by Joshalyn Hickey-Johnson, illustrated by Hayle Calvin has an important story to tell. About 86 years before the Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision, Susie Clark’s father, Alexander, filed a lawsuit to integrate the public schools in Iowa, a decision which was rendered by the Iowa Supreme Court in 1968. At the age of 13, Susie Clark was the first African American student to attend public high school in Iowa, where she graduated with honors in 1871. This book intended to simplify decades long civil rights work in a period before, during and after the civil war, offering a glimpse into the life of Susie Clark and her family. The book is interesting, the text rhyming, and the illustrations are pleasing. The author succeeded in sharing the message to be brave in the face of adversity, standing up for the rights of people who are being oppressed. She also communicated a small amount of the struggle that Susie faced as the first African American student in a school filled with unwelcoming Caucasian students and teachers. I realize that she glossed over the reality of that struggle in order to maintain a positive theme to the story, but I think that sharing a little more of the challenges would have been appropriate. Children need to understand what advances have been made, but also be given the tools to recognize the ways we still need to change. Some of the rhymes were a bit awkward, but I am impressed that the author was able to tell such a story in poetry. If not for those two points, I would have given this book a five star rating. Overall, I think that this is a valuable book telling an important story that everyone in the United States should know. I learned a great deal from the story and the information shared at the end of the book. The book would be a great introduction to talk about inequality that children observe or experience in their own lives as well as an education about what children more than 150 years ago experienced to bring about the school system we have today. It is something I would have loved to read to my children when they were growing up. I am voluntarily writing this honest review after reading an advanced complementary copy of this picture book thanks to Netgalley and Bookbaby.

"Susie Clark: The Bravest Girl You've Ever Seen" is a powerful picture book about Susan Clark, an African-American teen, who made an impact in Iowa in 1868 when she fought school segregation in her town. Through rhyming words, Susie's story is told in a way that does not shy away from the huge injustice of segregation but shares the history in a child-friendly way. I loved how the book shows illustrations of a white school versus a black school and the enormous disparity that there was. Additionally, I loved the pride for their African roots that Susie's grandmother shared with her along with the sharing of her heirloom okra seeds. Even as an adult, I learned more about a valuable historical figure through reading this book.

great depiction of a small step towards equality during the civil rights era. love how this can be used to teach children about segregation and Black female empowerment!

A very informative book for kids about the fight for inclusion in schools for the African American community. It is told in a very thoughtful way so kids can understand. Honestly, I had no memory of Susie Clark so it was a good read for me to.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is exactly what I was looking for to read to my 7 year old. It was cute and accessible for her. She really enjoyed it at bedtime.

This book is what we need right now. We need education about our history and heroes that kids can relate to and learn from. The charming illustrations felt handmade and accessible.
The story included not only the heroic actions but the support Susie received from her family behind the scenes.
It was a heartwarming story.
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

“Susie Clark: The Bravest Girl You’ve Ever Seen” is an account of the integration of Iowa’s public schools. Susie was the first student of color to attend an integrated public high school. The story lovingly explores Susie’s comfort in her elementary school and her uncertainty at being the first African American student to attend a previously all white school. As Susie faces her fears her family tells her of their own bravery and the bravery of her ancestors.

Joshalyn Hickey-Johnson’s Author’s note is an insightful and important part of the story and is a must-read for adults who read or gift this story to a child. Hayle Calvin’s illustrations are simple, but moving, capturing both joy and fear.

This book is great for children interested in stories about real people and/or civil rights.

I received an advance review copy from NetGalley and BookBaby for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I did not know anything about Susie Clark and I'll bet you did not either. Was she brave? Yes. Important? Yes. Hidden history? Until now. Read her story, especially if you care about race relations in the US. Almost 100 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, there is the story of Susie Clark, in the state of Iowa. Integration in the mid to late 1800s, this history was all new and fresh to me. Well, no longer. The book is well written and illustrated and is a very important story. I am glad to have read it.

This little book tells the fascinating story of Susan Clark, whose family played a crucial part in helping to de-segregate the schools of Iowa as early as 1868 - namely, nearly 9 decades prior to the crucial decision taken by the US Supreme Court in the ruling of Brown versus The Board of Education.

It focuses on the courage it must have taken for Susan to step up and become the first Black student in America to integrate a public school on the basis of a court order. Aged 13 at the time, we can only imagine the hostility she must have faced in the process of doing so.

This is an important part of American history, and one that is also relevant at a time when books are being banned and there are attempts to rewrite history to defend or dismiss claims of the damage done to American society in general - and African Americans in particular - by the systems of segregation and slavery that were in place for so long. It gets 3.5 stars.