Awards

• Commended for Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens (Fourteen and Up) 2015
• Commended for Lambda Literary Awards (Children/Young Adult) 2015
• Short-listed for Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award (Young Adult) 2016

Overview

In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever. Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily. Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept separate but equal. Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another. Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

Full Product Details

9780373211333

Table of Contents

Reviews

[A] well-paced, engrossing story....a beautifully written and compelling read. -School Library Journal A well-handled debut. -Booklist A piercing look at the courage it takes to endure...forms of extreme hatred, violence, racism and sexism. -Kirkus Reviews The big issues of school desegregation in the 1950s, interracial dating, and same-sex couples have the potential to be too much for one novel, but the author handles all with aplomb...Educators looking for materials to support the civil rights movement will find a gem in this novel, and librarians seeking titles for their LGBT displays should have this novel on hand. -VOYA I found myself at turns grateful and horrified as I read Talley's fictionalized account of integration....Lies We Tell Ourselves might be fiction, but the story is true - and it's one we should never forget. -NPR A stirring portrayal of the fight for integration in the late 1950s....Both [integration and gay rights] are touchy subjects, yet Ms. Talley navigates them with grace...Definitely a must-read book for 2014 - and future years to come, as I'm sure this book will go down in the young adult canon as a classic. -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A stirring portrayal of the fight for integration in the late 1950s....Both [integration and gay rights] are touchy subjects, yet Ms. Talley navigates them with grace...Definitely a must-read book for 2014 - and future years to come, as I'm sure this book will go down in the young adult canon as a classic. -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[A] well-paced, engrossing story....a beautifully written and compelling read. -School Library Journal A well-handled debut. -Booklist A piercing look at the courage it takes to endure...forms of extreme hatred, violence, racism and sexism. -Kirkus Reviews The big issues of school desegregation in the 1950s, interracial dating, and same-sex couples have the potential to be too much for one novel, but the author handles all with aplomb...Educators looking for materials to support the civil rights movement will find a gem in this novel, and librarians seeking titles for their LGBT displays should have this novel on hand. -VOYA I found myself at turns grateful and horrified as I read Talley's fictionalized account of integration....Lies We Tell Ourselves might be fiction, but the story is true - and it's one we should never forget. -NPR A stirring portrayal of the fight for integration in the late 1950s....Both [integration and gay rights] are touchy subjects, yet Ms. Talley navigates them with grace...Definitely a must-read book for 2014 - and future years to come, as I'm sure this book will go down in the young adult canon as a classic. -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Author Information

Robin Talley studied literature and communications at American University. She lives in Washington, DC, with her wife, but visits both Boston and New York regularly despite her moral opposition to Massachusetts winters and Times Square. Her first book was 2014's Lies We Tell Ourselves. Visit her online at robintalley.com or on Twitter at @robin_talley.

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