Meacham, Jon, ed. Voices in our blood; America's best on The Civil Rights Movement.

Random House. 561p. index. c2001. 0-375-75881-X. $16.95. SA*

It's no exaggeration to say "America's best" in the subtitle: Robert Penn Warren, David Halberstam, Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Willie Morris, William Styron, Eudora Weltry, William Faulkner, Alice Walker, Walker Percy--and more! My hesitation is for YA readers because this is a large collection (561 pages) and the print is not large by any means. Nevertheless, students could read portions, especially since the book is divided into four chronological blocks. A student could focus on any on the periods: just before the movement, as it starts, as it culminates, and as it ebbs. The editing is momentous. What to choose from so much literature? Some pieces are articles from such icons as The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly. Most are excerpts taken from the larger works: for instance, from Parting the Waters, the prize-winning biography of MLK by Taylor Branch, is a description of King speaking about "the bus situation in Montgomery" to people gathered in a church after the Rosa Parks has been arrested. An excerpt from Congressman John Louis's autobiography Walking with the Wind in included--"Bloody Sunday" about the march on Selma.

Even though some of the writers are best known for their fiction (William Faulkner, Eudora Welty), their work chosen for this collection is nonfiction. Each selection is remarkable in its own way, and the anthology as a whole is a formidable reading project.