Category: Young Adult/Teen Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN-10: 0595099939
Type: Fiction
Pages: 168
Copyright: Aug 1 2000
The truths of life and death, the horrible brutality of racism, and the power that comes with the discovery of inner courage.
Muscle and Blood is the story of two teenage boys--one white and one black--growing up in rural Western Kentucky during the turbulent late 1960s. Ben McEntire is the son of a prominent farmer; he is torn between his family's expectations for his artistic talents and his own longing to work the farm like his brothers. Ben is isolated and misunderstood until he meets Alex Jones. Alex is an impoverished black youth whose family is mistrusted and disliked by the whites in the community. Ben and Alex's friendship develops through an eruption of controversy and prejudice, a hatred that threatens to consume their families and, ultimately, their lives. Ben and Alex, however, have a bond which race and culture cannot break, a devotion that transcends the limits of bigotry. Through his relationship with Alex, Ben learns of the truths of life and death, the horrible brutality of racism, and the power that comes with the discovery of inner courage.
What a treat to ready the sample chapter from Muscle and Blood. Mr. Overby really captures the angst of a fifteen-year old in the late sixties. The setting is so clearly described that it really brought me into the Kentucky countryside. The characters are very real. I felt I already knew them and I want to learn their fate. I am also a student of the 1960's and have explored that incredible time period in both my reading and my writing. Blood and Muscle personalizes the racial tensions of that time and the calamity of the Vietnam War in a way that I am sure will be enjoyable for young adult readers and all fans of historical fiction.
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