Copyright © 2008-2017 Jean Alicia Elster. All rights reserved.
Volume Two—I Have a Dream, Too!

In this second installment, Joe Joe faces his peers, who ridicule him for dreaming of attending college one day. Through reading a book about Mary McLeod Bethune—an influential African American woman who overcame poverty and the lack of a formal education at an early age to become the founder of a college and an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt—Joe Joe realizes that with hard work, dreams can come true.

"The story teaches Joe Joe that even though he is treated unfairly because of his race, it doesn't change who he is."

Associated Press

"Thanks again for the great stories and characters in the "Joe Joe in the City" series. They are now a staple in every class I teach."

Nichelle Boyd-Robinson, Ph.D.
Assoc. Professor of Curriculum & Instruction
University of Mississppi


From I Have a Dream, Too!

Mom knocked quietly on the bedroom door before entering. Joe Joe was
lying on the bed with his back to her.
“Your teacher just called,” she told him.
Joe Joe rolled over and looked up at the ceiling.
“Why didn’t you turn in your paper?”
Joe Joe was quite for a moment before he turned his head to look at her.
“Mama, maybe I shouldn’t go to college.”