Dreamland Burning
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A compelling dual-narrated tale from Jennifer Latham that questions how far we've come with race relations.
Some bodies won't stay buried.
Some stories need to be told.
When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family's property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the present and the past.
Nearly one hundred years earlier, a misguided violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what's right the night Tulsa burns.
Through intricately interwoven alternating perspectives, Jennifer Latham's lightning-paced page-turner brings the Tulsa race riot of 1921 to blazing life and raises important questions about the complex state of US race relations--both yesterday and today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Latham's powerful second novel (after Scarlett Undercover) opens in present-day Tulsa, Okla., with the discovery of human bones beneath the floorboards of the Chase family's guesthouse. The police have little interest in identifying the skeleton or determining how it got there, but 17-year-old Rowan and her best friend, James, feel compelled to investigate. Nearly a century earlier, in 1921, 17-year-old William Tillman defies Tulsa's Jim Crow laws by selling a Victrola to a black teenager, Joseph Goodhope. Will grows to respect Joseph and becomes fond of his irrepressible younger sister, Ruby. When the Ku Klux Klan starts rounding up black people and burning their homes and businesses, Will is forced to make difficult decisions. Rowan and Will take turns narrating, their stories intertwining intriguingly as they unfold in parallel. Populated with vivid, relatable characters and structured to maximize mystery, tension, and dread, Latham's novel provides a gripping education in the real-life horror story that was the Tulsa race riot, shines a light on the current state of race relations, and inspires hope for the future. Ages 14 up.
