It's 1963 and fourteen-year-old Esther Young is looking for excitement. Cursed with a lack of talent in a family filled with artistic types, Esther vows to get some attention by initiating a summer romance with a black teen accused of murdering a white man in Alabama.

King-Roy Johnson shows up on Esther's doorstep that summer, an angry young man who feels betrayed by the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. Sent north by his mother to escape a lynch mob, he meets a follower of Malcolm X's who uses radical teachings about black revolution to fuel King-Roy's anger and frustration. But with each other's help, both Esther and King-Roy learn the true nature of integrity and find the power to stand up for what is right and true.

National Book Award-winning author Han Nolan brings readers a bold new voice--by turns funny and poignant, innocent and worldly--in this powerful coming-of-age story set during the turbulent struggle for civil rights.

She thinks he’s a ticket to excitement; he’s grappling with a nation on fire. Can an unlikely connection survive the summer of 1963?

• A Nation Divided: Explore the turbulent summer of 1963, where the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. clash with the fiery rhetoric of Malcolm X, forcing a young man to choose his path.
• A Tumultuous Coming of Age: Fourteen-year-old Esther feels like a misfit in her own talented family. But when King-Roy arrives, she discovers a courage she never knew she possessed.
• A Dangerous First Love: What starts as a naive plan to get attention by starting a summer romance turns into a profound connection that defies the prejudice of the era.
• Finding Your Voice: A powerful story about integrity, speaking truth to power, and discovering that the greatest talent is standing up for what’s right.