Hand in Hand

In the summer of 1945 11-year-old Lily Wagners daddy takes the Whites Only sign off the front door of the family grocery store in quiet Mayfield South Carolina.Lilys world is turned upside-down: the store is vandalized and she loses her best friend whose father forbids him from hanging around a-well the word he uses turns Lilys stomach. Hazel Jackson loves school and reading more than anything. She doesnt think its fair that she has to go to work with Ma Maybelle at the white familys house for the summer. But she knows that the rules for an 11-year-old Black girl are different. When Lily and Hazel meet they know they probably cant be friends. But they forge a connection through books that helps them learn about themselves and the world around them including hard truths of the Jim Crow South. Fans of The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes and Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper will love the story of Lily and Hazel as they stand up to racism in their small town.