Jericho Walls

by Kristi Collier

A beautifully written story about the power of friendship in the face of racism

Jo Clawson isn't the boy her father wanted, and she's not the young "lady" her neighbors expect of the preacher's daughter, either. But even though Jo doesn't always meet the expectations of the people around her, she still longs to fit in. When she and her family leave their northern home for the small southern town of Jericho, Alabama, Jo might finally stop picking fights and settle in right.


But when Jo befriends a young black boy, she discovers that "fitting in" is about a lot more than proper manners or a new outfit. Suddenly she's faced with a new set of questions that call up her own values. Maybe some fights are worth picking after all. Set in 1957, at the dawn of the civil rights movement, this riveting novel tells the inspiring story of a young girl growing up amidst racism.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, African American, Relationships, Friendship

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Imani ♥ ☮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay I guess. But the best part about it was how good it smelled! YUMMMMMM! :D

[Anna Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an unexpected gem! I wasn’t sure if I would like this book or not, but I think some of the things from this book will stick with me always. This was on AL.com’s list of Great Books Set in Alabama and also the summary on Goodreads describes it as taking place in Jericho, Alabama. However, the book leads you to think that it takes place in South Carolina. Even if it doesn’t take place in Alabama, I still enjoyed this book and am really glad I read it.

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1957, when her preacher father accepts a post in Jericho, Alabama, Jo wants to fit in but her growing friendship with a black boy forces her to confront the racism of the South and to examine her own values.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I know that's not much of a review. I'll leave the details to everyone else. Wonderful characters--great story. Five stars.

[Cinderella Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book over twenty years ago and it has still stuck with me. It's an amazing read.

[Arminzerella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josephine (Jo) Clawson is the preacher’s daughter, which is a hard thing to be since she’s a bit of a tomboy and a bit of a trouble maker. She whacks the local bully in the face and soon afterward her father is “called” to serve as pastor in his hometown parish. They move from Indiana to South Carolina during the 1950s and segregation. The community in South Carolina is much more conservative than the one in Indiana and both Jo and her mother have a hard time fitting in. Jo’s father also has difficult decisions to make. Here he is back in his hometown with people respecting him and thinking he’s an important guy, and here are his wife and child who aren’t fitting in, who have different ideas about race (ideas which he used to support).

Jo’s best friend that summer is Lucas, the son of her family’s African American maid, Abilene Jefferson. Lucas is a sensitive, caring boy, who helps injured animals. They spend a lot of time down by the river together, talking, reading, and playing with Lucas’ dog, Moses. They get into some scraps as well, and no one seems to like the fact that they’re friends.

Jo starts bringing Lucas books from the local public library because black folks aren’t allowed inside (and there’s no black library – lots of separate but equal references). And eventually Lucas and his older brother Simon decide to try and get Lucas his own library card. Jo happens by on this momentous occasion and sticks up for the brothers. They all land in jail and Jo’s father bails them out. It’s then that the preacher decides to support for his family and their ideals over the backward ways of the people in his hometown. It’s going to be an uphill battle for all of them.

This was an excellent introduction to race relations and is written for a younger audience (ages 10 and up, perhaps). Jo and Lucas are young, so there’s no potential messy attraction between them. They just play together. Jo goes through a bunch of different feelings as she tries to understand the attitudes of the people around her. She’s never met a black person before moving to South Carolina and at first she’s completely guileless. She meets Abilene and Lucas head on and speaks to them honestly and openly. It’s later that she realizes that others in the community (namely, other white people) don’t see them as equals. These people are not only cruel to the black folk in their community, but they are cruel to Jo and her mother, for not subscribing to their views. Jo has all sorts of difficulties trying to find the *right* way to be, but eventually her gut instincts lead her to support her friends. It’s a very empowering story. 1950 isn’t sounding so long ago, either. That continues to amaze me.

[Indira · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I finished this book,i was so proud of Josephine and her father and mother for rebeling what seemed like distressed times of racism.Most people of Josephine's race would have been so disgusted,which they were,that a white girl was hanging out with a black boy.
In one scene,Josephine's father was having a meeting with his deacons of the church in their home.After discussing what they needed to discuss,they moved to a different topic concerning his wife and his daughter.The deacons were talking about how Josephine's mother was over stepping her boundaries visitng the sick and shut in,in the colored folk's area.The deacons also said that his wife,was making a bad influence on his daughter.I just wish that back then,if I were a preacher's daughter,I wish I could voice my own opinion instead of having to be sweet and acting like everything is all peachy.It seems fake to me having to put a plastered smile on your face every time you walk into your father's church of judgemental people.
But I was not born in the racism era,and glad that I am mixed with different races and cultures.Some people are still in the state of mind that every thing that has to do with black culture is bad.To all people that are reading this review,when you come across a racist,and they start talking about you,talk to them and say:
"You may think that being mixed is something terribly wrong,but somebody made a difference for you and I to be allowed in the same area and same room.Don't ever you think they could be a doormat and you can just walk all over them."

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Daddy said we were moving because he was the last of an old Carolina family, and it was time he went home."
There are many things I remember from my childhood as giving me great pleasure; a drink of water from a fountain on a hot day, riding my bike all over town with friends, entering a library with my very own library card and checking out lots of books. How would it feel if one were not allowed such simple pleasures? Would they be worth fighting to have? That is the question 11-year-old Jo must ask herself. When, after a move from her Northern home to small-town South Carolina, she begins to see the "walls" that Southern people have built for Negroes. This is 1957, and Jo must keep a friendship with Lucas, a colored boy, a deep secret. She begins to understand that certain things shouldn't be done "just because they have always been done that way". Jo must make the decision whether she should stand back, or whether she should take a stand against racism.
Great Quotes from This Book:
(pg. 29) "Moving from church to church like we did made it hard to keep friends, but I never had to worry about losing the company of books."
(Chap. 13) Mama's heart-breaking story about her Cherokee grandmother
This book was so wonderful that it gave me " book hangover"; that's when a book affects you so much that you can't start another one right away!
*This book got a rating of A+ in my Reading Journal*

[Genesis · Rating 2 out of 5]

What i think is that well Josephine the main character in the book is someone who goes to church yet listens to her parents but in her head she rater do other things besides church. She was always seen as the daughter of the paster and she didn't really like that because of the reason people said things behind her and exetra. She wanted a way to change for that others wouldn't say such things. I find this a big situation because Josephine is too afraid to tell her oarents and has to go trough so much as going to school. I believe that this may be a way in which other pick on someones oresoective onto her way of being and in something she blieve in (religion). If this were bullying i would think that Josephine has to talk more. Something i might change coming from this book is the middle and her way of being. To me this book wasn't the best but it was still a good book because it told two diffrent stories of two life leasons that happen to young teens!! :)

[Denisse Carbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book pretty much interesting because it had to do with racism. While growing up, Josephine is known as the preachers daughter in Indiana. They moved recently and was struggling with fitting in with others. She meets an innocent boy named Lucas who's the maid's son. They get to know each other little by little , but kids from school started seeing her with him. People around her started to make fun of her just because she's hanging out with colored people. Her behavior started to change through out the book.One day her father brings it up during dinner and notifies her of a few things such as her behavior. Her mother talked about how she was teased as a little girl but once people got to know each other they will accept her for who she was and not for what skin color, where you come from, or how you look. She learned her lesson and so will everyone else with Josephine.

[Devyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jericho Walls is an amazing new book written by Kristi Collier. The book follows the life of a young girl named Jo, who moves from town to town with her Pastor father-on top of everything her mother is not making her life easy-he walks has been talking to the ‘black folk’.

Can Jo look past the racism that fuels the town, or will she fall into the mix of hate for each other? This book is for everyone who has attempted to read To Kill A Mockingbird and could never finish it, as well as for everyone who has read the book and loved it!


Collier locks your mind away in her writing time machine, and makes you feel the fear, love, hate of each of the characters, I loved the book and will not be surprised if it becomes required reading right beside Mockingbird.

[Judi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was a Young Adult fiction book until I started in, but I couldn't put it down. It's a quick read about a preacher in a small town during the Civil Rights upheaval of the late 50's, early 60's.

Told from the perspective of the daughter, who is trying to combine behaving with making friends, the story is about race relations in a microcosm.

Will her accidental friendship with a black boy have a tragic ending? Will an outcast young mother and her mulatto child be welcomed in the church? Will the preacher soon be looking for a call from God somewhere other than the hometown where he's returned?

Excellent book.

[Miss Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

gr 5-6 209pgs


1957, Jericho, Alabama. When 11 year old Jo's father, a Baptist preacher, accepts a preaching position in his old hometown, Jo has a hard time fitting in. When Jo meets Lucas, she finally finds someone that she has something in common with. But she discovers that their friendship is something that must be hidden since the members of her father's church wouldn't approve of her friendship with Lucas because he is African American. Unlike Jo's father, Jo and her mother have a hard time accepting "the way things are" with segregation. Can they convince Jo's father to stand up for what is right?

Great story!

[Deborah]

There's a lot to be said for this book, but what stands out more than anything is the narrator--and main character, naturally--Jo. She's spirited, but not a cliche. She's too unsure for that. Anyone who was the class tomboy knows you still want the girls to like you, want to be one of them, and Jo does. She doesn't make all the right choices. She does dumb things.

She's also racist, which I consider a positive quality of the book. Obviously racism is wrong, but in the South in the 1950s, social attitudes were quite different. The fact that Jo does not automatically adopt a modern attitude but has to learn it through her own experiences makes the impact that much stronger.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this book! it was so cute and amazingly wonderful to read. it is about a white girl who secrectly befriends a black boy in a town full of people who looked down on you if you associate with the "colored". this story was set a long time ago back with Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. the young girl's dad is the pastor of the local church he has to face a decision of sticking up for what he knows is right or keeping his job as the well liked pastor of the church. this book is about friendship, love, and courage.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

When 11-year-old Jo Clawson's minister father takes a church in the small southern town he grew up in, she discovers inequalities between the white and African-Americans in that small community (1957). I liked how the author kept the story mostly focused on one girl's experience in one small town, but mentioned larger, national events going on at the same time. This is an appropriate book for elementary kids as an introduction to the Civil Rights movement.




Note: I support independent bookstores and encourage you to check out http://www.indiebound.org/ to find your closest bookstore.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is FABULOUS! More people MUST read this. It is a Historical Fiction book and
is what used to happen in History, Jo finds heself by a lake side by side with a
coloured little, nice boy, Lucas. He has the cutest dog that has a sad story behind himself.
As Lucas drifts away through the forest, Jo notices he has a limp is hi right leg. I PREDICT: Jo's mother, a Nurse will just look a boy who needs help, and look at his leg and purhaps fix it.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous book about the Jim Crow era in the South. The protagonist is a sixth grade yankee girl whose father is a preacher. They move from the north to the south where she must deal with the bigotry of society and yet still try to fit into the social scene. Great for upper elementary. Well written. Thoroughly enjoyable.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jericho Walls by Kristin Collier is a serious book. It has a "pop-out" message and makes the reader think a lot. This book is about racism, so it is a very strong theme. It is a shorter read, but amazing all over. It shows the perspective form two different sides of the story as the book "speaks" to you. All around, amazing book.

[LeAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

When her preacher father accepts a post in Jericho, Alabama, in 1957, Jo wants to fit in but her growing friendship with a black boy forces her to confront the racism of the South and to reconsider her own values. Beautifully done. National events are in the background as they would be for an 11-year-old. Good characters, believable dialog, nice images.

[Ms. Tongate, TLC Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kudos to folks who had the courage to take a stand against injustice. Almost 55 years ago, African Americans were not allowed to check out public library books and we wonder why we have an achievement gap? Love Jo in this read. She's one fiesty librarian in the making!!

Page 76 quote

[Bria · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book opened up my eyes its a really good book.

[Brandee Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I've been on a streak of really good books. This one was no exception. A great story told from a young girls view. While it wasn't a "true" story, it could have been. Great characters and story!

[Delena · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of friendship and racism. A very easy story to read about a family in the 50's and how they had to deal with racism around them and know they were doing the right thing.

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book

[Maddi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book truly shows the severe segregation that we used to have in the US. Anyone looking for an easy read should look no farther than this book.

[Tûba · Rating 3 out of 5]

plain,simple and cute...