Sharon M. Draper presents "storytelling at its finest" (School
Library Journal, starred review) in this New York Times bestselling
Depression-era novel about a young girl who must learn to be brave in
the face of violent prejudice when the Ku Klux Klan reappears in her
segregated southern town.
Stella lives in the segregated South--in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to
be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can't.
Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it
sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn't bothered them for years.
But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less
wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something
they're never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of
change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As
Stella's community--her world--is upended, she decides to fight fire
with fire. And she learns that ashes don't necessarily signify an end.