Leon's Story by Leon Walter Tillage

Leon's Story
By Leon Walter Tillage

When I began to read this book, I thought it would be like all the other slavery/Jim Crow books I have read. I had an I have already a lot of books like this, can there really be that many books about the same thing kind of attitude. Well I was completely wrong! This book opened my eyes to the world of fear that African Americans lived in during this time. It was always really hard for me to connect to books about slavery, because I was never directly affected by it. This book made you feel like you were living in the south with Leon. You could feel the emotions that he was feeling, but you also had your emotions mixed in with his. The emotions this book brought out of me were ones of anger and disillusionment. It is hard to believe that people actually treated other human beings like this. It was a sad time for our country and the memory still haunts people, that is why the topic in this book is still hard to bring into any discussion. The fact that segregation happened about 120ish years ago sounds like it was a long time ago, but really 120 years is not that long ago if you think about the whole history of the United States and the world.

I would use this book for 6th grade and up. Some of the scenes in the book are depicted very graphically and could be hard for a younger student to wrap their mind around. It was hard for me as a young adult to wrap my head around, so I could not imagine using this book as a teaching tool to a younger audience than 6th grade. However, I do think that this story has great value and many positive conversations could come from reading this book. It would allow people to see what was going on in the south in a first person point of view, and feel the emotions that Leon was feeling. This is a very strong and powerful book, but it is one that needs to be addressed.