This here Freedom School ain't gonna be like no ordinary school. You gonna learn 'bout people and places—'bout who you are. Once you learn that, you ain't gonna let bein' scared get in your way.

Young Jolie has a lot to be scared about since the new Freedom School teacher, Annie, has been living with her family in Chicken Creek. Bricks thrown through the windows in the dead of night, notes filled with hate—and Freedom School hasn't even started yet.

When cries of "Fire, fire" ring out through the night, Jolie's worst fear comes true: They've burned down the church where Freedom School was supposed to be held! Now Annie can't possibly teach the kids and adults of Chicken Creek about black poets and artists, historians and inventors, about their people and who they are. Unless the people themselves fight back.

In this triumphant story based on the 1964 Mississippi Freedom School Summer Project, author Amy Littlesugar and illustrator Floyd Cooper come together once again—to celebrate the strength of a people and the bravery of one young girl who didn't let being scared get in her way.

From the dust jacket