Author Talk and Book Discussion "Freedom Lessons" A Novel by Eileen Harrison Sanchez

Come meet Eileen Harrison Sanchez, author of "Freedom Lessons" and ask her questions over Zoom video conferencing.  The title is available as an eBook.  You can reach BPL's catalog to check out the eBook and/or place a Hold by clicking this link: https://borrow.bklynlibrary.org/r1s/iii/encore/record/C__Rb12270650;jsessionid=2313EDB467572D82F760AA32DA10D2DA?lang=eng Please reserve the eBook as soon as possible if it's necessary to wait for your turn to read.

The Zoom online meeting room will open to admit registered participants at 4:45pm on Tuesday 10/27/2020.  Contact Paerdegat Library Book Club Leader if you have questions: yyau@bklynlibrary.org

"Told alternately, by Colleen, an idealistic young white teacher; Frank, a black high school football player; and Evelyn, an experienced black teacher, Freedom Lessons is the story of how the lives of these three very different people intersect in a rural Louisiana town in 1969.

Colleen enters into the culture of the rural Louisiana town with little knowledge of the customs and practices. She is compelled to take sides after the school is integrated—an overnight event for which the town’s residents are unprepared, and which leads to confusion and anxiety in the community—and her values are tested as she seeks to understand her black colleagues, particularly Evelyn. Why doesn’t she want to integrate the public schools? Frank, meanwhile, is determined to protect his mother and siblings after his father’s suspicious death—which means keeping a secret from everyone around him.

Based on the author’s experience teaching in Louisiana in the late sixties, this heartfelt, unflinching novel about the unexpected effects of school integration during that time takes on the issues our nation currently faces regarding race, unity, and identity." -Goodreads.com