Biography Takes Young People's National Book Award: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Phillip Hoose has received the Young People's Literature award for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2009).

Claudette Colvin was the fifteen-year-old high school student who first refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white woman. Although Colvin's case caused a minor media stir at the time, the troubled and somewhat headstrong teen was not selected as the test case that the civil rights movement was seeking, and nine months later Rosa Parks was the citizen chosen to play that role on the national stage.

Still, as a plaintiff, Colvin became part of the legal action which eventually brought about integration of city buses in Montgomery and began the Civil Rights Movement. "Because of this woman, our lives have changed," stated the author Phillip Hoose, who honored Claudette Colvin by having her join him in receiving the National Book Award for Young People tonight.