About the Author

Susan Carol McCarthy lives in Carlsbad, California. Her acclaimed debut novel, Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands, was the winner of the 2003 Chautauqua South Fiction Award and was named one of the Best Fiction Books of 2002 by San Diego Magazine.

Reviews

"Provokes more than enough moral indignation on the part of the reader to keep one turning pages... well-paced."
--The Miami Herald
 
"Beautifully written.... McCarthy's characters are fascinatingly complex.... A sharply drawn picture of a struggle for justice against a corrupt system."
--Orlando Sentinel

Adult/High School-In the early 1950s, local law in Florida could prohibit children who were demonstrably one-eighth African American or more from attending school-whether public or private-with "white" children. Rather than taking the effects of such segregationist policies as the theme here, McCarthy casts her net more widely: How are both individuals and the community affected when some are declared to be among the unprotected class in spite of identifying themselves as members of the majority power? Told from several viewpoints, the story of a fifth grader's expulsion-on the basis of his suspiciously nappy hair-develops into revelations about the secrets maintained by the community's leading family, the moral resources of the corrupt sheriff's wife, and the power and limitations of the free press. This is not a perfect literary work as it lacks the subtlety and grace of such novels as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and there are structural problems. However, the overarching strength of the tale is the realistic interplay of government policy and private lives, as well as the clash between perceived cultural truths and actual scientific facts. Most successful is McCarthy's realization of the consciousness-or lack thereof-of the era, making this story more suited to support of the social sciences curriculum than to language arts.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"Provokes more than enough moral indignation on the part of the reader to keep one turning pages... well-paced."
--The Miami Herald

"Beautifully written.... McCarthy's characters are fascinatingly complex.... A sharply drawn picture of a struggle for justice against a corrupt system."
--Orlando Sentinel