New Boy

Author: Julian Houston

First line: "It won't be easy, you know," said Cousin Gwen.

Why you should read this book: Rob Garrett is heading up north to integrate a snooty Connecticut prep school where prejudice takes on strange new forms, but back home in Virginia, his friends are fighting segregation on the front lines, and Rob is torn, trying to find his place in the struggle. On vacation in New York, he comes to understand a world view different from any he's known before, and when his friends organize a sit-in at the "Whites Only" Woolworth's lunch counter, he cannot stand on the sidelines. An interesting perspective on the civil rights movement of the late 50s.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You like easy endings that wrap all the details up in a pretty ribbon.