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The nickel boys : a novel / Colson Whitehead.

Reviewed by: Digital Services

Colson Whitehead explores the abuse at a fictional reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is bas...

Full review

Summary:
As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men." In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys' fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780385537070
  • ISBN: 0385537077
  • ISBN: 9780345804341
  • ISBN: 0345804341
  • Physical Description: 213 pages ; 22 cm
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Doubleday, [2019]

Content descriptions

Awards Note:
Pulitzer Prize (Fiction), 2020
Subject: Florida School for Boys > Fiction.
Abuse of administrative power > Fiction.
African American boys > Abuse of > Fiction.
African American teenagers > Fiction.
African Americans > Southern States > Social conditions > Fiction.
Racism > Fiction.
Reformatories > Fiction.
Reformatories > Corrupt practices > Fiction.
African Americans > Civil rights > Fiction.
Male friendship > Fiction.
Teenagers > Fiction.
Frenchtown (Tallahassee, Fla.) > Fiction.
Florida > Fiction.
Genre: Historical fiction.
Historical fiction.
Bildungsromans.

Available copies

  • 100 of 106 copies available at SPARK Libraries.

Holds

  • 2 current holds with 106 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Abington Community Library FICTION WHITEHE (Text) 50687011653980 Adult Fiction Available -
Albright Memorial Library FICTION WHITEHE (Text) 50686015518249 Storage Available -
Albright Memorial Library FICTION WHITEHE (Text) 50686015518496 Adult Fiction Available -
Albright Memorial Library FICTION WHITEHE (Text) 50686015538155 Storage Available -
Alexander Hamilton Memorial Free Library F WHI (Text) 37268003043395 AHMFL Adult Fiction Available -
Altoona Area Public Library F WHI (Text) 33240004494426 Adult Fiction Available -
Annie Halenbake Ross Library F Whi (Text) 00141933 ADULT Fiction Available -
Bangor Public Library F WHI (Text) 75011000311941 Adult Fiction Available -
Beaverdale Public Library F Whi (Text) 31814480084869 BVRM Fiction Available -
Blossburg Memorial Library F WHI (Text) 30063000262719 Adult Fiction Available -


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