Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
A Newbery Honor Award Winner
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · March 17, 2020
A 2005 Newbery Honor Book It only takes a few hours for Turner Buckminster to start hating Phippsburg, Maine.
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- Who it’s for
- A thoughtful historical novel about friendship, belonging, and the cost of a town’s ambitions.
- Genres
- 20th-Century U.S., Friendship, Growing Up
- Published
- HarperCollins, March 17, 2020
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Start with this bookAbout this book
A 2005 Newbery Honor Book It only takes a few hours for Turner Buckminster to start hating Phippsburg, Maine. No one in town will let him forget that he's a minister's son, even if he doesn't act like one. But then he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a smart and sassy girl from a poor nearby island community founded by former slaves.
Continue reading
Despite his father's-and the town's-disapproval of their friendship, Turner spends time with Lizzie, and it opens up a whole new world to him, filled with the mystery and wonder of Maine's rocky coast. The two soon discover that the town elders, along with Turner's father, want to force the people to leave Lizzie's island so that Phippsburg can start a lucrative tourist trade there. Turner gets caught up in a spiral of disasters that alter his life-but also lead him to new levels of acceptance and maturity. This sensitively written historical novel, based on the true story of a community's destruction, highlights a unique friendship during a time of change. Author's note.
Friendship and Change
A thoughtful historical novel about friendship, belonging, and the cost of a town’s ambitions.
Come here for
- A friendship tested by a town’s disapproval
- Maine’s rocky coast and a community facing displacement
Expect
- A young narrator confronting prejudice and changing loyalties
- A sensitively told story rooted in a community’s destruction
Where it sits
| Friendship | 52% |
|---|---|
| Growing Up | 48% |
| 20th-Century U.S. | 44% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- US: African American Stories
- Nature & Wildlife
- Big Feelings
- Friendship
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Prejudice & Racism
- YA Animal Stories
- Coming of Age
- Diverse YA Fiction
- Authors
- Gary D. Schmidt
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- March 17, 2020
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- US: African American Stories