At thirteen, Louise Collins has gotten used to her mother’s affinity for truckers, alligator handbags and hurling insults at a six-year-old every morning when she arrives at school. Ruby Bridges is the first black student to attend all-white William J. Frantz Elementary in New Orleans and Louise’s mother is one of the “Cheerleaders,” women who are fiercly against desegregation. With a school boycott underway, Louise spends her days at the boarding house her mother runs tending to their crotchety permanent guest and reading Jane Eyre. One day, a Chevy Bel Air pulls up and out steps Morgan Miller, a man whose mysterious past is eclipsed by his intellect and open manner - qualities that enchant mother and daughter alike. For the first time, Louise feels like someone cares what she thinks, even if she doesn’t know what she believes. But when Morgan’s motivations are called into question, everything Louise thinks she knows about her mother, her world and herself will change. “It’ so easy to look back at another time and place and say to each other, ‘What on earth were those people thinking’ But what if someone told us what those people were thinking, and showed us the personal earthquakes that had to occur before they could think something else Maybe we would realize that we are all human beings. That’s one of the things that happens when you read this important book.” -Lynne Rae Perkins, author of the Newbery Award-winning Criss Cross.