One Mississippi

April 3, 2006
When his father is relocated from Indiana to Minor, Miss., in 1973, 16-year-old Daniel Musgrove finds himself a classic fish out of water. At Minor High, the Midwestern teenager finds a kindred spirit in wiseacre Tim Cousins, whose motto is "Everything is funny all the time." The two indulge their love of Sonny and Cher, get recruited by a local Baptist church to perform in an amateur musical called Christ!
and endure the bullying of football star Red Martin. When, on prom night, the boys accidentally run over Arnita Beecham, a beautiful, popular black girl, the boys flee, letting Red take the fall. Arnita wakes from her coma believing she's white and promptly falls for Daniel—which makes Tim extremely jealous and puts their coverup at risk. Childress's comic tone and well-written adolescent confusion make his late shift into darker territory jarring, and readers might not follow him all the way to his violent destination.

May 1, 2006
Childress -s ("Crazy in Alabama") absorbing and offbeat novel follows events in the life of young Daniel Musgrove as his family relocates to rural Mississippi. Daniel begins his junior year in high school, a stranger in a strange land, but quickly befriends a local alienated youth named Tim Cousins. The two boys share some typical and funny high school experiences. But there is a darker side, starting with a strange accident after the prom involving the homecoming queen, and even though they are not really at fault, they implicate themselves by saying nothing when the school bully is blamed. Tim is comfortable with their silence, but Daniel feels guilty. Although the boys remain friends, Daniel comes to suspect that something is seriously abnormal about his friend. The book climaxes in a Columbine-like scene wherein Tim goes berserk with rifles in the school and Daniel attempts to act heroically but is not enough of a hero to save his two closest friends. Serious issues of race, identity, and loyalty are raised, and tragic and violent events occur, but the author retains a surprisingly light touch in this highly engaging read. Recommended for popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/15/06.]" -Jim Coan, SUNY at Oneonta Lib."

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2006
Adult/High School -Just as Daniel Musgrove is about to enter 11th grade in the early -70s, his father moves the family from Indiana to rural Mississippi. A few months later, Daniel -s older brother, and best friend, joins the Army, and Daniel finds a new best friend, Tim. Both boys are bright, witty, and living with secret demons. Chief among Daniel -s is his father, a bully and a coward. When Tim and Daniel double date for the junior prom, the teens have an accident on the way home and cause the prom queen to fall off her bike and hit her head. Childress -s inspection of race relations -among schoolmates, adults, and lovers -builds from this point: the prom queen of the newly integrated high school is black, but the injury leaves her believing that she is white. The boys hang the accident on a bullying football player, but the girl -s mother knows Daniel was involved and uses that knowledge to gain power over him. Tim -s secret begins to erupt during the summer, although Daniel, preoccupied with his obligations to and feelings for the prom queen, misses warning signs. Childress doesn -t twist the plot so much as he unravels its threads with realistic deliberation, diverting attention from Tim by spotlighting Mr. Musgrove -s literal home destruction, then swinging the focus back in time to catch Tim in his last furious act. Authenticity demands some brutal scenes and rough language, and a loaded interlude with Cher Bono. This is Daniel -s story, so many of the minor characters are one-dimensional, just as they would be in his perception." -Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2006
Midway through high school in Indiana, Daniel Musgrove once again must relocate as his abusive salesman father gets a new route in the highly mockable South, where Daniel figures he won't really have any friends and he'll be "as dumb as these people in a month." Also, it being small-town Mississippi in 1973, integration is a relatively new concept for both the locals who don't like it and Daniel, who doesn't understand the big deal. Pigeonholed into the "brain/loser" species of student along with his best friend, Tim, Daniel navigates, often hilariously and sometimes harrowingly, the pratfalls of southern teenage life, where racial tensions abound and friendship is filled with uncertain and perhaps misplaced affections. But when one night the first black prom queen suffers a brain-damaging accident and awakens believing she's white, things begin to truly unravel for Daniel and Tim. Childress eloquently addresses racism, tentative adolescent love, family dysfunction, and the occasional exploding house with plenty of wit and insight, even if the story does inevitably lead to a Columbine-like shootout at the school that one sees coming from far off but can do nothing to avert.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)