25 November 2014

Lies We Tell Ourselves


Talley, Robin. Lies We Tell Ourselves. Harlequin Teen, 2014.

Sarah is one of a group of black students who will be integrating into the all-white high school in their town in Virginia. She is a senior, an honors student, and headed to college. She has been reminded many times how important it is for her to succeed in this very difficult endeavor. Linda is a white student at the same school. Her daddy runs the city newspaper and is very opinionated when it comes to integration. Linda is hoping for graduation to come soon so she can marry and get out of her dad's house. These two characters tell alternating sections of the story of integration at a Virginia high school.

Wow. I love the idea of telling the integration tale from both sides of the coin. I loved reading how Sarah interacted with Linda and was able to make her think about things. Integration stories are always hard to read because I hate it when people act like jerks for stupid reasons, but this book was a quick read because I simply had to find out what happened. This is a great historical fiction story that would be easy to recommend to today's teens.

Recommended for: young adults
Red Flags: lots of violence, bullying, language
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: The Lions of Little Rock, Brown Girl Dreaming,March: Book One

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