The Other Side

“That summer the fence that stretched
through our town seemed bigger.
We lived in a yellow house
on one side of it.
White people lived on the other.
And Mama said, “Don't climb over
that fence when you play.”
She said it wasn't safe.

Clover lives on one side of the fence. She sees a girl on the other side, and watches as the girl comes to sit on the fence. One day, Clover approaches the girl.

I could read this book aloud all day, every day, and I would do it, if I could, in my school library, or sitting on my front porch steps, or even aloud to my husband. It's a perfect story to start discussions, and it gives me hope, like that of the children, that one day we won't be building walls, but tearing them down.