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Myers, Anna.
TULSA BURNING
New York : Walker, 2002.
IL 3-6, RL 4.0
ISBN 0802776965

(2 booktalks)

Click on the book to read Amazon reviews
Booktalk #1

The story is based on true events during the race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. Nobe Chase, who is white, wants to live up to his name, Noble, but finds it hard. He has an abusive father who dies, then he and his mother go to live and work with a violent and mean sheriff who shoots Nobe's dog for no reason. He is friendly with Isaac Mitchell and his mother, who are African Americans and they help and support Nobe. He takes a job as a dishwasher at a cafe, where he meets Lester Cotton, who hates whites and is Isaac’s father. The hot summer winds on, with racial tensions everywhere. What kind of man will Nobe grow up to be: courageous and noble, as he says he wants to be, or filled with vengeance, hatred, and abuse, like so many of the people around him?  (Jean B. Bellavance for Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Awards, 2004-2005)

Booktalk #2

The day he buried his Pa, Nobe Chase lost everything--his father, his home, and his dog, Rex. Worst of all, he had to move into town to live with Sheriff Leonard--dog killer, wife stealer, and secret law-breaker of all sorts. That day, Nobe found a new purpose for his life--revenge. Hate takes over his life, burning inside him out of control. Nobe learns how dangerous hate can be when it is unleashed in a fury of fire and gunpowder during a race riot in nearby Tulsa. When the violence spills into his hometown of Wekiwa, Nobe must decide what kind of man he is going to become--one driven by vengeance or one driven by courage. Based on true events in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during May of 1921, this is a novel about a young man who must wrestle with his past and find the strength to pull free from the poisonous grip of hatred and abuse.  (Lisa L. Foster,  South Carolina Book Awards, 2006)

SUBJECTS:      Race relations -- Fiction.
                        Coming of age -- Fiction.
                        Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.
                        Fathers and sons -- Fiction.
                        Riots -- Fiction.
                        Oklahoma -- History -- 20th century -- Fiction.
                        Historical fiction.

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