1959

A powerful, poignant coming-of-age novel that captures a dramatic moment in American history as clearly as a photograph.

It's the summer of 1959 and Willie Tarrant of Turner, Virginia, is twelve. Her father and other adults in the town are worried about integration—how it will affect their children's safety and the quality of their education—but for Willie it's just another problem she's going to have to deal with, like her chores and beginning to go out with boys. Willie and her friends—kids from good families with good grades—are being groomed to be sent in the first wave. Before this can happen, though, eight black college students, wearing suits and fresh haircuts, go into the Woolworth's lunch counter—changing everything.

In 1959 one of the most talented writers of her generation has written a book that will become a classic of civil rights literature.