Daniel Musgrove is a teenager in the early 1970s. His dad is a salesman, and his company moves him around from year to year. Now they’re moving to Minor, Mississippi.

Halfway through high school, Daniel is out of place not only as a new student, but as a Yankee who couldn’t care less about the integration issue. He and his new best friend, Tim Cousins, spend most of their free time together. They share their obsession for Sonny and Cher, and they go to the prom with a set of twins.

When the boys are involved in a terrible accident that seriously injures Arnita Beecham, the school’s first black prom queen, life gets complicated. Daniel ends up helping the Beecham household, then helping Arnita when she gets home. Due to a major head injury, she is going through an identity crisis that devastates her family.

The chronicling of Daniel’s time in Mississippi meanders through teen and adult issues, as he faces that crucial moment of leaving childhood behind. His friendship with Tim will explore dimensions he never imagined, even with the hints along the way. Despite his desire to be “cool” instead of a “brain/loser,” Daniel enters this book an innocent. He will emerge from his tale something entirely different.

Childress vividly captures a difficult coming-of-age story. Racism, teen love, family, bullies, and other issues are encompassed in a seamless flow. The characters around Daniel, especially Tim, are larger than life. Viewing the 1970s South from a young “Yankee’s” perspective is sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart wrenching.

This book is a half step from greatness. While I recommend this for summer reading, there is a sense of something missed. Whether it be a lesson learned—as Daniel seems to learn lessons then immediately discard them—or a larger point, there is a shadow hanging over the end. The disastrous events at the end of the novel seem to promise an epiphany that doesn’t quite happen—something hard to define. Then again, maybe that is the purpose, and the reader is to find their own meaning.

Go out and read this novel. Find your truth in Daniel’s words.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
6/20/2006

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