Shunned by her long-time neighbors at the height of World War II, German immigrant Sophie Heller finds her family wrongfully blamed for a tragic train accident and is unexpectedly defended by a handsome high-school teacher.

"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...