It's hot and humid in 1933 Mississippi, when an elderly black man and a white store owner test their friendship against a backdrop of racism and peer pressure. An explosive confrontation takes place when the black man, Tom Bee, greets the clerk, John Wallace, by his first name--an intimacy unheard of at the time. A group of witnesses heckles Wallace for what they perceive as his permissiveness, and in spite of his private promise to Bee to allow him to greet him this way, Wallace betrays Bee, shooting him in the leg. This brief but poignant story won the 1988 Coretta Scott King Award. It provides strong characterization as well as food for thought on racism and human relations.

 

This book is part of a book series called New Windmills .

This book is aimed at children in secondary school.

There are 90 pages in this book. This is a short story book. This book was published 1993 by Heinemann Educational Publishers .

Mildred D. Taylor was born in Mississippi and grew up in Ohio. She worked in Ethiopia with the Peace Corps before enrolling at the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado, where she helped develop a Black Studies programme. She is best-known for her Newbery Medal winner, ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY. Mildred D. Taylor still lives in Colorado.