Stella by Starlight
Sharon M. Draper
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
When the Ku Klux Klan&#8217;s unwelcome reappearance rattles Stella&#8217;s segregated southern town, bravery battles prejudice in this Depression-era tour de force from Sharon Draper, the <I>New York Times </I>bestselling author of <I>Out of My Mind</I>.<BR>Stella lives in the segregated South&#8212;in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can&#8217;t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn&#8217;t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they&#8217;re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella&#8217;s community&#8212;her world&#8212;is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don&#8217;t necessarily signify...</BR>