In response, Mr. Gill, a white man, tells a story from his childhood in New York City. Mr. Gill (referred to here as Daniel) and his friend Archie, who is Black, are excited to attend their friend Steve\u2019s birthday party. Dressed in suits and ties, they arrive at Steve\u2019s fancy apartment building, ride the elevator up to the seventh floor, and ring the doorbell. Steve\u2019s mother invites Daniel in but tells Archie that he must leave; there are no more chairs. When it becomes clear that Archie isn\u2019t welcome because of his race, Daniel refuses to enter: \u201cWe\u2019re going back to my house, where there are always enough chairs.\u201d The chair in Mr. Gill\u2019s classroom serves as a reminder that there\u2019s room for everyone here. The author\u2014who shares a name with the protagonist\u2014based his tale on an event from his own childhood. Acknowledging that there are times when it isn\u2019t safe for those from marginalized backgrounds to speak up, this potent story reminds those with privilege that they can\u2014indeed, must\u2014take a stand. For powerful discussions, pair this heartfelt friendship story with narratives of brave Black characters. Gal\u2019s scribbly mixed-media illustrations are a visual feast, using richly saturated colors to emphasize emotion. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In response, Mr. Gill, a white man, tells a story from his childhood in New York City. Mr. Gill (referred to here as Daniel) and his friend Archie, who is Black, are excited to attend their friend Steve\u2019s birthday party. Dressed in suits and ties, they arrive at Steve\u2019s fancy apartment building, ride the elevator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}