By Susan Eaton
416 pages; Algonquin

Susan Eaton's The Children in Room E4 (Algonquin) zeroes in on the barely acknowledged reality of modern-day school segregation: an all-minority inner-city classroom in Hartford, Connecticut, where Lois Luddy, a die-hard third-grade teacher, tries to salvage her students' futures. Eaton tells the riveting story of the parents, educators, and lawyers who, in the long wake of the Brown v. Board of Education triumph in 1954, continue to battle in and out of court for equal, not separate schooling. It is the visionary Ms. Luddy and kids like Jeremy Otero, with his bubbly, brave-hearted intelligence, who give this book its urgent warmth.

— Cathleen Medwick