Readers' rating:
Publishes
Jun 11, 2024
336 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
In 1955, a Black family passes for white and moves to a "Whites Only" town in the suburbs. Caught between two worlds, a teen boy puts his family at risk as he uncovers racist secrets about his suburb. A new social justice thriller from the acclaimed author of This Is My America!
Calvin knows how to pass for white. He's done it plenty of times before. For his friends in Chicago, when they wanted food but weren't allowed in a restaurant. For work, when he and his dad would travel for the Green Book.
This is different.
After a tragedy in Chicago forces the family to flee, they resettle in an idyllic all-white suburban town in search of a better life. Calvin's father wants everyone to embrace their new white lifestyles, but it's easier said than done. Hiding your true self is exhausting -- which leads Calvin across town where he can make friends who know all of him...and spend more time with his new crush, Lily. But when Calvin starts unraveling dark secrets about the white town and its inhabitants, passing starts to feel even more suffocating--and dangerous--than he could have imagined.
Expertly weaving together real historical events with important reflections on being Black in America, acclaimed author Kim Johnson powerfully connects readers to the experience of being forced to live a life-threatening lie or embrace an equally deadly truth.
"A highly effective story of a young man's journey in a time simmering with racial change and resistance." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] searing work. Through Calvin's perceptive and sincere first-person narration, Johnson examines the complexities of passing privilege and highlights the extreme lengths that those in power will go to uphold white supremacy. " —Publishers Weekly, (starred review)
This information about The Color of a Lie was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kim Johnson held leadership positions in social justice organizations as a teen and in college, and is now an author and educator. Kim's bestselling novel, This Is My America, won numerous accolades, including the Pacific Northwest Book Award and Malka Penn Human Rights Award for Children's Literature. Her second novel, Invisible Son, is another thriller ripped from the headlines. Both novels were selected as NPR Best Books. The Color of a Lie is her first historical thriller. She holds degrees from the University of Oregon, University of Maryland, College Park, and an MFA from Oregon State University Cascades. She lives with her family in the Washington DC area.
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