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Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands

Susan Carol McCarthy · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

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❤️

Zora and Me

Victoria Bond, T.R. Simon

A fictionalized account of Zora Neale Hurston's childhood with her best friend Carrie, in Eatonville, Florida, as they learn about life, death, and the differences between truth, lies, and pretending. Includes an annotated bibliography of the works of Zora Neale Hurston, a short biography of the author, and information about Eatonville, Florida.

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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Mildred D. Taylor · 276 pages

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, it is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence. It is a story of physical survival, but more important, it is a story of the survival of the human spirit. And, too, it is Cassie's story -- Cassie Logan, an independent girl raised by a family for whom independence is primary, a family determined not t

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The Dry Grass of August

Anna Jean Mayhew · 320 pages

Racial ViolenceRacismLoss of InnocenceComing of Age
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963

Christopher Paul Curtis · 239 pages

The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

Racial ViolenceLoss of InnocenceRacismComing of Age
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A Fine Dark Line

Joe R. Lansdale · 308 pages

Racial ViolenceLoss of InnocenceRacismComing of Age
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The Pecan Man

Cassie Dandridge Selleck

FloridaRacial ViolenceRacismHistorical Fiction
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The Reformatory

Tananarive Due · 570 pages

Racial ViolenceFloridaRacismHistorical Fiction
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The Learning Tree

Gordon Parks · 303 pages

Autobiographical novel about a boy entering his teens in a racially segregated Kansas town in the 1920s.

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A Thousand Never Evers

Shana Burg · 310 pages

IN KUCKACHOO, MISSISSIPPI, 1963, Addie Ann Pickett worships her brother Elias and follows in his footsteps by attending the black junior high school. But when her careless act leads to her brother's disappearance and possible murder, Addie Ann, Mama, and Uncle Bump struggle with not knowing if he's dead or alive. Then a good deed meant to unite Kuckachoo sets off a chain of explosive events. Addie

Racial ViolenceRacismComing of AgeHistorical Fiction
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The Hate U Give

Angie Thomas · 458 pages

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter navigates between the poverty-stricken neighborhood she has grown up in and the upper-crust suburban prep school she attends. Her life is up-ended when she is the sole witness to a police officer shooting her best friend, Khalil, who turns out to have been unarmed during the confrontation – but may or may not have been a drug dealer. As Starr finds herself even more t

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Fireflies in December

Jennifer Erin Valent

Racial ViolenceRacismComing of AgeHistorical Fiction
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Friedrich

Hans Peter Richter

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Sounder

William H. Armstrong · 116 pages

Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and through his relationship with his devoted dog Sounder.

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Summertime

Vanessa Lafaye · 354 pages

Florida, 1935, and the residents of Heron Key are preparing for the 4th of July barbecue, little realising how much their world is about to change. Tensions simmer at the party and in the early hours of the morning, a woman is found half-beaten to death. As whites turn on blacks, the finger of suspicion points at one man. Far over the Atlantic a tropical storm changes direction and turns towards F

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The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd · 311 pages

Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racis

Racial ViolenceRacismComing of AgeHistorical Fiction
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The Round House

Louise Erdrich · 352 pages

A young man is upended after a violent attack on his mother, which leaves his family in turmoil. Well-written page turner that is hard to put down!

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White Lilacs

Carolyn Meyer · 242 pages

Young Rose Lee Jefferson is shocked to learn that the white residents of Dillon, Texas, want to raze the city’s black enclave, Freedomtown, and build a park in its place. Rose Lee and the other residents of Freedomtown cannot bear the thought of losing their homes. But fighting the city’s plans could be costly—or even life-threatening. Will the families of Freedomtown be able to save their thrivin

Racial ViolenceRacismComing of AgeHistorical Fiction
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What I Saw and How I Lied

Judy Blundell · 275 pages

In 1947, with her jovial stepfather Joe back from the war and family life returning to normal, teenage Evie, smitten by the handsome young ex-GI who seems to have a secret hold on Joe, finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies whose devastating outcome change her life and that of her family forever.

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Fire from the Rock

Sharon M. Draper · 240 pages

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Sources of Light

Margaret McMullan · 236 pages

Fourteen-year-old Samantha and her mother move to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962 after her father is killed in Vietnam, and during the year they spend there Sam encounters both love and hate as she learns about photography from a new friend of her mother's and witnesses the prejudice and violence of the segregationists of the South.

Racial ViolenceRacismComing of AgeHistorical Fiction
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Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston · 231 pages

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) is a classic Harlem Renaissance novel by American writer Zora Neale Hurston. The novel follows Janie Crawford as she recounts the story of her life as she journeys from a naive teenager to a woman in control of her destiny.

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X

Ilyasah Shabazz, Kekla Magoon · 360 pages

Co-written by Malcolm X's daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world. Malcolm Little's parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that's a pack of lies--after all, his father's been murdered, his mother's been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him la

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The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers · 334 pages

Set in 1930s Georgia, the novel centers around a deaf and mute man, John Singer. Singer has been devastated by the loss of his dear friend, Antonapoulos, who was committed to an asylum for bad behavior

Racial ViolenceRacismComing of AgeHistorical Fiction

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