Spite Fences

Kinship, Georgia, in 1960 is just a sleepy Southern town. Thirteen-year-old Maggie Pugh knows how things work: the rich live on one side of town; the poor live on another. Pretty girls get love; plain ones don't. Black and white don't mix. When the winds of civil rights start blowing through Kinship, Maggie sees violence boil to the surface.

Through her camera, a gift from a black friend, Maggie focuses first on the injustice in her own family, then on the cruelty accepted by the town. She wonders if anything can change the hatred that has built so many fences between people.

Spite Fences is a stark portrait of the crippling effects of small-town racism and prejudice. It won the International Reading Association Award and is an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Parent's Choice Honor Book. Narrator Kate Forbes captures Maggie's courage and inner turmoil in this work, which is sure to spark discussions among young adults, parents, and teachers.