Bookfinder: Children's book with Black boy not allowed to dance

September 5, 2021 9:22 PM

From a friend: I just remembered this book I read as a kid (So, prior to the mid-90s), and I can't remember the title, and it's starting to drive me nuts. It was set in NY, I think, and the main character was a black girl in junior high or maybe high school. Her father was a civil rights lawyer, maybe? Her uncle was a famous dancer, and her little brother loved dancing, but her father thought that it was degrading for black people to perform like that, and wouldn't let the little brother dance. The girl joined or started some kind of group at school for civil rights for kids. Anybody else remember this book?
posted by DebetEsse to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Best answer: Nobody's Family Is Going To Change, by Luise Fitzhugh (who wrote Harriet the Spy)
Goodreads
posted by trig at 12:31 AM on September 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Friend is (hopefully) asleep, but sounds like trig got it in one, which is particularly appropriate as said friend is a math prof.
posted by DebetEsse at 1:18 AM on September 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

it was later adapted as the musical The Tap Dance Kid
posted by brujita at 9:39 PM on September 6, 2021 [1 favorite]