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    New Boy
    Unavailable
    New Boy
    Unavailable
    New Boy
    Ebook265 pages4 hours

    New Boy

    By Julian Houston

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “The author of this powerful debut novel . . . writes from the inside about the civil rights struggle . . .  a great addition to the history shelves.”—Booklist (starred review)

    Fifteen-year-old Rob Garrett wants nothing more than to escape the segregated South and prove himself. But in late 1950s Virginia, opportunity doesn’t come easily to an African American. So Rob’s parents take the unusual step of enrolling their son in a Connecticut boarding school, where he will have the best education available. He will also be the first student of color in the school’s history. No matter—Rob Garrett is on his way.

    But times are changing. While Rob is experiencing the privilege and isolation of private school, a movement is rising back home. Men and women are organizing, demanding an end to segregation, and in Rob’s hometown, his friends are on the verge of taking action. There is even talk about sitting in at a lunch counter that refuses to serve black people. How can Rob hope to make a difference when he’s a world away?

    “This is history without the sensationalism, in which small acts of resistance eventually change the rules.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “Houston convincingly gets inside a young man’s mind as he grapples with major issues confronting him and his race . . .  By focusing on one individual’s journey, Houston also lays bare the searching questions of a torn society. Though Rob’s insights occasionally seem wiser than his years, events unfold entirely in his point-of-view, inserting readers directly into history-making events of the not-so-distant past.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJan 14, 2008
    ISBN9780547529592
    Unavailable
    New Boy
    Author

    Julian Houston

    Julian Houston was born in Richmond, Virginia, and educated in the public schools of that city before attending the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. He attended Boston University and was a community organizer in Harlem during the civil rights movement. He is now an associate justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts. Julian Houston lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife and family.

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    Reviews for New Boy

    3/5

    23 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Gripping, true to life story of a young southern black boy who goes North to boarding school, sent by his parents to escape segregation. Well-written though there are a few spots where the grown judge drowns out the vulnerable boy. Very nicely done, overall.
    • 2/5
      This book takes place in 1950's America where racial prejudice and segregation was rampant; this could have been an interesting especially told through the eyes of a young African American boy, but instead he just talks about making it on the honour roll.
    • 3/5
      Rob Garrett, age 15, is sent by his parents to a boarding school in Connecticut. His parents want him to have an education and advantages that he would not receive in the segregated South of the 1950s. Written in the third person, this book feels more like an autobiography. In fact, the author was sent to a boarding school in Connecticut in the 1950s. While not the best writing, this is a story that needs to be told. I wish the author had indeed written his autobiography--I think it would be more interesting and would suit his writing style better.
    • 3/5
      Though that story line sort of bookends the story, it’s left behind for much of the middle, to make room for Rob’s struggle to figure out who he is, coming from a world, in Virginia, where everything is segregated, to the world of his boarding school, where he is the first and only African American student, and much of the faculty is rooting for him to succeed. Well-written, interesting, but Rob’s voice is a bit too old for a teenager – many of his observations are very worldly.
    • 4/5
      This novel has a unique perspective on a very important and exciting time in American history, and it's worthy for that alone. There was some suspense -- will Rob be able to participate in the sit-in, will he decide to remain at Draper -- to help the plot alone.However, Rob did not sound like a fifteen-year-old boy. He had such formal speech and vocabulary and phrasing. Even I don't talk like that, and I am known for my big words and archaic phrases. I think this book would have been better off written in the third person. That way the author could have said all he wanted to say without compromising Rob's voice.