Teen Novel Focuses On 1957 Little Rock School Integration Struggle
"Kennedy Heights author and former teacher Sharon M. Draper is back with her first teen novel since 'Copper Sun,' which won the 2007 Coretta Scott King Author Award in January. "Fire From the Rock' (Dutton/Penguin, $16.99) is historical fiction, and as with all her books, race relations play a central role.
"It's 1957 in Little Rock, Ark., and 15-year-old Sylvia Patterson is about to enter high school. She's looking forward to it for all the normal teen reasons. Then, her teacher asks if she can submit Sylvia's name to be among the first students to integrate the city's Central High School.
"Even though the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled three years earlier that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, Central High remained all white.
"The book is timed to the 50th anniversary of the landmark moment in American history. Draper, 59, pulled the idea from her childhood. She vividly recalls sitting in her family's Cleveland living room watching news reports about Little Rock and being terrified by what she saw. The story is told chronologically starting on Jan. 1, 1957, and is broken up by Sylvia's diary entries, making it intimate and highly personal. Early reviews are good. 'Draper evokes the escalating tensions and violence of that seminal summer, giving them a sense of immediacy via a strong central character,' said Kirkus magazine."
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