Ron refusing to budge (even after the police has been called) finally causes Mrs. Fielding, for example, seem to be at least somewhat in agreement with Ron that the regulations not allowing African Americans to sign out library books are wrong and discriminatory (for they try to circumvent, to work around the rules by offering to sign out books for him), but as positive, as caring as this might seem on the surface, Ron still remains determined to obtain his very own library card (as circumventing, working around discriminatory laws and rules might well work as a temporary fix, but will not change the actual regulations against African-American individuals not being allowed to have a library card, which remain in place and enforceable).

And Ron's Big Mission is also a loving and beautiful tribute to Ron McNair, who dreamed of becoming a pilot, an astronaut, and who started to make this dream start to become reality one day in 1959, when he boldly and confidently challenged the racially discriminatory policies of his local public library, making people realise and accept that all library patrons should be allowed to have a library card and be permitted to sign out books with no exception.Īnd while it is indeed interesting (and yes even much laudable) that a number of Lake City, South Carolina's white citizens, like Mrs. Now I have really and truly enjoyed the authors' presented narrative, the textual flow of this inspiring story it is both engaging and informative but fortunately without being neither too melodramatic nor drily factual. Naden's Ron's Big Mission, a fictionalised account of a real incident in space shuttle astronaut Ron McNair's childhood (Ron McNair was one of the seven astronauts who lost their lives in the 1986 Challenger explosion), shows how a simple and more importantly how a non-violent act of civil protest and courage against racially discriminatory regulations (and by a nine year old child at that) can challenge racist attitudes, can change unjust and discriminatory rules and regulations for the better.

Ron's Big Mission by Rose Blue