Edgar Award nominee stuns in this heartrending tale set in a Swaziland boarding school where two girls of different castes bond over a shared copy of Jane Eyre.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the CenturyAdele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester at school is going to be great with her best friend Delia at her side. Then Delia dumps her for a new girl with more money, and Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn't pray and defies teachers' orders.
But as they share a copy of
Jane Eyre, Lottie's gruff exterior and honesty grow on Adele, and Lottie learns to be a little sweeter. Together, they take on bullies and protect each other from the vindictive and prejudiced teachers. Then a boy goes missing on campus and Adele and Lottie must rely on each other to solve the mystery and maybe learn the true meaning of friendship.
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE • In this poignant coming-of-age tale, two black girls break all the rules on race, class, and gender to bravely become more themselves.
“Accidents, lies, thefts . . . secrets . . . dead bodies, and illicit rendezvous make for riveting reading.”—School Library Journal
Two girls from different worlds. One powerful bond.
At Keziah Christian Academy, a boarding school in the heart of Swaziland, sixteen-year-old Adele Joubert is one of the top girls. She’s well-mannered, a good student, and most importantly, has a white father who can pay her school fees. But on the bus back to Keziah after holiday break, Adele discovers her best friends have replaced her with a new top girl—one whose father is wealthier than her own. Worse, now booted from the top girls’ quarters, Adele has to share a room with Lottie Diamond, a poor outcast who likes to fight and doesn’t follow the rules. Adele is determined to win her top spot back, but instead slowly finds herself caught in Lottie’s gravitational pull.
Lottie forces Adele to think about things she’s never considered before, like whether her father might love her mother and what future could possibly exist for a colored girl from Swaziland—even one who follows all the rules. Adele is soon forced to make a choice: betray Lottie to regain her social status or forge ahead with her new friend and become an outcast herself. Before Adele can decide, tragedy strikes the school, and the two girls find themselves investigating the suspicious circumstances of a classmate’s disappearance. Their investigation doesn’t lead where either girl expects.
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