To Kill a Mockingbird meets One Crazy Summer in this powerful, bittersweet debut about one girl's journey to reconnect with her mother and learn the truth about her father in the tumultuous times of the Jim Crow South.
In the small town of Alcolu, South Carolina, in 1944, 12-year-old Ella spends her days fishing and running around with her best friend Henry and cousin Myrna. But life is not always so sunny for Ella, who gets bullied for her light skin tone, and whose mother is away pursuing a jazz singer dream in Boston.
So Ella is ecstatic when her mother invites her to visit for Christmas. Little does she expect the truths she will discover about her mother, the father she never knew and her family's most unlikely history.
And after a life-changing month, she returns South and is shocked by the news that her schoolmate George has been arrested for the murder of two local white girls.
Bittersweet and eye-opening, How High the Moon is a timeless novel about a girl finding herself in a world all but determined to hold her down.--from the publisher
320 pages 978-0316484008 Ages 8-12
Reviews:
"How High the Moon is at once historical and timely, captivating, and lovely. In Karyn Parsons brilliant hands, I feel like I've traveled a lifetime into the heartbreaking and beautiful south of the 1940s, spent time with Ella, Myrna and Henry and the many other amazing people I've met in this book, then landed back here in the present day having left a part of me behind. So glad this book is in the world."―Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreaming
"In How High the Moon, Karyn Parson brings the same verve, timing, and emotive brilliance that she brought to the screen. Equal parts mystery, historical fiction, and coming-of-age, this is a story full of warmth and light and drama that will captivate you. That will haunt you. And that will ultimately enlighten you."―Kwame Alexander, author of The Crossover
