In a book based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin, the important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, and many others, this first in-depth account of the 15-year-old girl, who nine months before the famous Rosa Parks incident refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, skillfully weaves her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.

Phillip Hoose is an award-winning author of books, essays, stories, songs and articles. Although he first wrote for adults, he turned his attention to children and young adults in part to keep up with his own daughters. Claudette Colvin won a National Book Award and was dubbed a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009. He is also the author of Hey, Little Ant, co-authored by his daughter, Hannah, It’s Our World, Too!, The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, and We Were There, Too!, a National Book Award finalist. He has received a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, a Christopher Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, among numerous honors. He was born in South Bend, Indiana, and grew up in the towns of South Bend, Angola, and Speedway, Indiana. He was educated at Indiana University and the Yale School of Forestry. He lives in Portland, Maine.