As her all-black high school becomes more racially mixed, Talley Barbour befriends a white girl who shares her passion for running and she becomes romantically involved with a handsome white classmate who is a drug dealer. Reprint.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Virginia Esther Hamilton was born, as she said, "on the outer edge of the Great Depression," on March 12, 1934. The youngest of five children of Kenneth James and Etta Belle Perry Hamilton, Virginia grew up amid a large extended family in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The farmlands of southwestern Ohio had been home to her mother's family since the late 1850s, when Virginia's grandfather, Levi Perry, was brought into the state as an infant via the Underground Railroad.
Virginia graduated at the top of her high-school class and received a full scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs. In 1956, she transferred to the Ohio State University in Columbus and majored in literature and creative writing. She moved to New York City in 1958, working as a museum receptionist, cost accountant, and nightclub singer, while she pursued her dream of being a published writer. She studied fiction writing at the New School for Social Research under Hiram Haydn, one of the founders of Atheneum Press.
It was also in New York that Virginia met poet Arnold Adoff. They were married in 1960. Arnold worked as a teacher, and Virginia was able to devote her full attention to writing, at least until daughter Leigh was born in 1963 and son Jaime in 1967. In 1969, Virginia and Arnold built their "dream home" in Yellow Springs, on the last remaining acres of the old Hamilton/Perry family farm, and settled into a life of serious literary work and achievement.
In her lifetime, Virginia wrote and published 41 books in multiple genres that spanned picture books and folktales, mysteries and science fiction, realistic novels and biography. Woven into her books is a deep concern with memory, tradition, and generational legacy, especially as they helped define the lives of African Americans. Virginia described her work as "Liberation Literature." She won every major award in youth literature.
Grade 8 Up Hamilton's novel works on at least five levels: within the personality of the protagonist, within her immediate circle, within her setting of school and neighborhood, between her world and the intrusive white world, and between the novel and the reader, especially if that reader is unfamiliar with the details of black urban American life. Talley's formerly all-black high school has been converted to an integrated magnet school for the entire district. This means an influx of white students. The culture shock is immediate and prolonged. Add to the mix drugs, heavy metal rock, Talley's struggles to establish her own values, and an almost unbearable level of adolescent sexual tension, and you have a very potent brew indeed. Talley and her circle of friends are effectively portrayed: Didi, her white best friend, hopelessly involved with Roady, who is crippled both in mind and body through drug use; David, his dealer, who now has his eye on Talley; and Victor, who is attempting to save her from her fixation on David. The setting of school corridors, city streets, and a rock concert right out of Hieronymous Bosch is equally real. The use of black English throughout may be a challenge to some readers, but is well worth the effort, since the book would be weakened in any other idiom. Not a happy book, but a vivid, even surrealistic and insightful depiction of painful relationships. Barbara Hutcheson, Greater Victoria Public Library, B.C., Canada
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
US$ 5.45
Within U.S.A.
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00071322051
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 39510055-6
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # GRP92533209
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.25. Seller Inventory # G0590130056I4N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Former library book; Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.25. Seller Inventory # G0590130056I5N10
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Irish Booksellers, Portland, ME, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 12-0590130056-G
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: GridFreed, North Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: New. In shrink wrap. Seller Inventory # 50-03309
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: GridFreed, North Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: New. In shrink wrap. Seller Inventory # 50-03272
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: GridFreed, North Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: New. In shrink wrap. Seller Inventory # 50-03308
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: GridFreed, North Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: New. In shrink wrap. Seller Inventory # 50-03307
Quantity: 1 available