A Summer of Kings

By Han Nolan

This novel of a turbulent bond between a black teenager and a sheltered white girl in the Civil Rights era is a “powerful mix of triumph and tragedy” (School Library Journal).
 
It’s 1963 and fourteen-year-old Esther Young is tired of feeling like a boring misfit in her well-off New York family full of talented artistic types. She wants this summer to be life-changing—and it will be.
 
King-Roy Johnson shows up on Esther’s doorstep that summer. He’s been sent north by his mother to escape a lynch mob after he was accused of murder in Alabama, and is taken in by Esther’s family. Feeling betrayed by the nonviolent philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr., King-Roy meets a follower of Malcolm X who uses radical teachings about black revolution to fuel King-Roy’s anger and frustration. Esther, meanwhile, becomes more drawn to Dr. King and Mahatma Gandhi. With each other’s help, both Esther and King-Roy must learn the true nature of integrity and find the power to stand up for what’s right.
 
From a National Book Award–winning author of Dancing on the Edge, this novel, by turns funny and poignant, “not only opens a window to history, but also displays Nolan’s brilliant gift for crafting profoundly appealing protagonists” (School Library Journal).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9780547351438

Han Nolan

Han Nolan is a critically acclaimed author of books for teenagers. She won the National Book Award for Dancing on the Edge and was a National Book Award finalist for Send Me Down a Miracle. Some of her other books include If I Should Die Before I Wake, Born Blue, Crazy, and Running Past Dark. She lives in Virginia where she is on the faculty of Hollins College’s MFA program. Learn more at HanNolan.com.

Reviews for A Summer of Kings

[oldbookswine · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An excellent story about the summer leading up to the March in Washington DC in 1963. Esther Young , a 14 year old girl finds her voice when she becomes friends with King-Roy who comes to live in her family.

[joelansing · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A Summer of KingsA Summer of Kings is a novel by Han Nolan. It is a well-detailed account of one girl’s struggle with segregation in the 1960s. This girl is white, her name is Esther, and she feels that she is the misfit of the family because she is not very talented with anything, yet her whole family is famous for performing. She also only has one friend, until an African American teenager named King-Roy moves in. He presents many new thoughts and ideas to Esther about racial prejudice and how he has now turned away from nonviolence. Will Esther be able to set things straight with her family or King-Roy?