Armstrong and Charlie

By Steven B. Frank

During the pilot year of a Los Angeles school system integration program, Armstrong and Charlie learn to cope with everything from first crushes and playground politics to the loss of loved ones and racial prejudice in the 1970s.

Charlie isn’t looking forward to sixth grade. If he starts sixth grade, chances are he’ll finish it, and he’ll be older than his older brother ever was.

Armstrong isn’t looking forward to sixth grade either. He’ll have to wake up at five-thirty to ride a bus to an all-white school in the Hollywood Hills. When they are assigned seats next to each other, what starts as a rivalry becomes a close friendship.

Set in Los Angeles in the 1970s, Armstrong and Charlie is the funny and heartwarming tale of two boys. Different, yet the same.

      

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781328698919

Steven B. Frank

Steven Frank is the author of The Pen Commandments, a guide to writing that Booklist called “funny, inspiring, personal, moving, and often hilarious."  His middle grade short fiction and plays have appeared in Weekly Reader’s Writing and Read magazines. He is also a beloved middle school teacher at Le Lycee Francais of Los Angeles, where his students often intentionally misbehave because he punishes them with fun writing assignments. www.stevenbfrank.com Twitter @stevenbfrank

Reviews for Armstrong and Charlie

[jennybeast · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great boy story, feels very realistic, lots of layers. Great for talking about racism in many ways -- from segregation to bussing, to how even liberal white people overreact to fear. Love the relationship Armstrong builds with his cranky, elderly neighbor, and the vitality of his neighborhood. Features some precocious preadolescent romance that seems very realistic for 1970s and 1980s.

[annawaffles · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I LOVED this book. I loved getting to know Armstrong and Charlie and everyone else in this remarkable book. It felt so perfectly, awkwardly 6th grade, while also opening my eyes to an unfamiliar yet critically important part of the American story. We already have it for my library, but I plan to recommend it as much as possible going forward.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review. I just wish I had read it as soon as it showed up on my NetGalley shelf.

[eggsnhm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great story of a begrudging but significant friendship between boys from very different circumstances. It is the mid-1970s and the first year that black kids are getting bussed to an all-white school in the Hollywood Hills. Armstrong and his friends aren't very happy about leaving their neighborhood, and Charlie's friends are just as put out that black kids are "invading' their school. Charlie, white and Jewish, is on the fence. He wants to be accepted by his "white flight" friends but has parents who see bussing as a great opportunity for both sets of kids, and they insist not only re fuse to put Charlie in a different school, they encourage him to be friend Armstrong, who started the school year make life difficult for Charlie. Indeed, the two boys form a reluctant friendship and find they have more in common than they ever would have guessed.Told from alternating persepcitves: Charlie's, Armstrongs, and Mrs. Gaines, the playground supervisor, the voices of each character is clear and distinct, and each of the three characters comes across as utterly authentic.

[jackiewark · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set during the 1970s, Armstrong and Charlie is a nostalgic, yet persuasive story about two boys from different worlds who, once again, show us that at the heart of it all, we are all really the same. Charlie, who lives a privileged life, begrudgingly at first, becomes friends with Armstrong, a remarkable young entrepreneur who wants to make something of himself. As Armstrong is bused to Charlie's white school in the Hollywood Hills, he encounters both acceptance and resistance. As the school year goes on, Charlie and Armstrong find they have so much in common. Both have suffered unspeakable loss and they find a way to help one another through it. Yet, as the school year comes to a close and they both will be moving on to middle school, they realize that they may never see each other again. Deep down, however, they know that their time together has taught them a very valuable lesson of acceptance, friendship, and empathy. A wonderful story which reflects the sentiments of the times. Nicely narrated in this audio version, their voices are distinct and resonating. A great book for discussion and reflection. Thanks you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers, Recorded Books, Steven B. Frank, and Candice Baker for this preview copy.

[bogreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Armstrong and Charlie end up in the same sixth grade class room when busing starts to desegregate Charlie's school. Something about each of them causes them to be at odds with each other in the classroom, lunch room, and while playing sports. A natural friendship develops over the school year, while each of them contends with issues at home. This audiobook by Recorded Books is both realistic and humorous while maintaining its authenticity.