Recommended Age:
12
+
Best for mature readers who enjoy beautifully written historical fiction that confronts racism and institutional injustice with emotional power and moral clarity.
About the Book
In 1912 Maine, Turner Buckminster III, the new minister's son, befriends Lizzie Bright Griffin, a Black girl from a nearby island community that the town's white leaders plan to evict to make way for a tourist resort. A Newbery Honor book based on true events that is both heartbreaking and quietly powerful about racism, injustice, and the courage to stand up for what is right.
Content Ratings
💡
Intense Themes
The novel centers on the forced displacement of a Black community through racist municipal policy, the complicity of institutions including the church, and Turner's moral awakening; themes of racism, injustice, and institutional violence are sustained and emotionally intense.
⚔️
Moderate Violence
The Black community on Malaga Island is forcibly evicted; Lizzie's grandfather dies; Turner is physically beaten by townspeople for defending Lizzie; violence is historically accurate and emotionally significant.
Engagement:
Genre:
Historical Fiction
Published:
2004
Page Count:
219
