The nickel boys : a novel

Whitehead, Colson 1969- (author.).

Summary: As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men." In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys' fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy.

Item details

ISBN: 9780385537070
ISBN: 0385537077
ISBN: 9780345804341
ISBN: 0345804341
ISBN: 9780385545358
ISBN: 9780385537087
ISBN: 9780385693967
ISBN: 978038545440
ISBN: 0385545355
ISBN: 9780385545358
Physical Description: print
regular print
211 pages ; 22 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Doubleday, [2019]
Badges:
- Top Holds Over Last 5 Years: 5 / 5.0
- Most Copies: 5 / 5.0
- Top Circs: 5 / 5.0

Contents / Notes

Awards Note:

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2020

Find similar items by subject

Subject:

Florida School for Boys Fiction
Abuse of administrative power Fiction
African American boys Abuse of Fiction
African American teenagers Fiction
African Americans Southern States Social conditions Fiction
Racism Fiction
Reformatories Fiction
Reformatories Corrupt practices Fiction
African Americans Civil rights Fiction
Male friendship Fiction
Teenagers Fiction
Frenchtown (Tallahassee, Fla.) Fiction
Florida Fiction
Racism Fiction
Reformatories Fiction
Reformatories Corrupt practices Fiction
African Americans Southern States Social conditions Fiction
African Americans Civil rights Fiction
18.06 Anglo-American literature
FICTION Coming of Age
Florida School for Boys.
Teenagers
Male friendship
African Americans Social conditions
African Americans Civil rights
Abuse of administrative power
African American teenagers
Racism
Reformatories
Southern States
Florida
18.06 Anglo-American literature
African American teenagers Fiction
Reformatories Fiction
African Americans Segregation Fiction
Racism Fiction
United States Race relations Fiction
Florida Fiction

Genre:

Historical fiction.
Bildungsromans.
Novels.
Bildungsromans.
Fiction.
Historical fiction.
Historical fiction.
Historical fiction.
Bildungsromans.
Novels.
Fiction.

Currently available copies

152 out of 161 copies are currently available at PINES. (Show)
9 out of 11 copies are currently available at Flint River Regional Library System. (Show)
1 out of 1 copy are currently available at Peachtree City Library.