Book Review by Edwin Ashe, 8th Grader
Leon’s Story is a tale of the life of an ordinary man who went through great struggles and tragedies only because of the color of his skin.
Leon Walter Tillage grew up in segregated North Carolina in the 1930s and ’40s. This engaging memoir is illustrated with unique black paper cut-outs. The thin black lines of the illustrations remind us of the racial lines that restricted Leon. In the book, the reader watches Leon grow into a young man who learns to think outside of the racial lines that controlled him his whole life. We watch him stand up to what he and many others thought was wrong.
While reading the book, I realized that even though Leon and I were part of two different worlds, we had the same soul, the same understanding to know who we are and where we are going. I would recommend this book because even though the events happened a long time ago, they will lie deep in the reader’s mind and remind us of who we are, where we came from and where we are going.
