Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues

Twelve-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his older sister, and their great-grandmother try to keep their family housed and fed while joining the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in the summer of 1956. The novel follows their daily challenges as they cope with the economic pressures of rent and food shortages while taking part in the civil-rights protest against segregated buses. Through Alfa's perspective, the book portrays the impact of the early civil-rights movement on an African-American family in the Deep South.