about the book
In 1953 during the McCarthy era, Communist paranoia abounds in the working class Chicago suburbs.
Tommy and his buddy help with the town’s paper drive. While wrestling with a mountainous pile of recycled newspapers, Tommy spots an old copy of The Daily Worker, a communist paper. Someone here in Downer’s Grove is a communist!
Tommy, obsessed with cowboys, dreams of being a good guy like the Lone Ranger, but real life and dreams are two very different things. Tommy is a troubled kid. Since the birth of his youngest sister, his mother has been spiraling into madness. One minute she is fine; the next she is violent and abusive. With his life a mess, Tommy’s own anger builds; he messes up at school, is a nasty bully to his classmates, and even steals from the local stores.
On Tommy’s twelfth birthday, he walks into the house to find his mom screaming and throwing things, including his birthday cake and his gift, a pair of cowboy boots. After his mom’s fit, the day isn’t so special. Bad goes to worse the next morning when Mary Lou, his much-loved older sister, is severely burned trying to get rid of his boot box. Burning the trash has always been Tommy’s chore, but he was too busy fussing with his new boots.
With Mary Lou in the hospital for months, Tommy takes over her paper route. It is a perfect way for him to investigate his neighbors and find the communist. After getting caught stealing from the grocery store, Tommy uses the copy of the communist paper to frame the owner, Mr. McKenzie. The paranoid community goes crazy and the man’s business falls apart.
Remorseful, Tommy realizes this latest prank has gone way too far. He is acting more like an outlaw than a cowboy hero. With Mary Lou not getting any better, his mother getting much worse, and his bullying out of control, somehow Tommy has to set everything right. To his surprise, a helping hand comes from the real communist!
about the author
Kristin Levine claims to have been a nerdy kid who just didn’t fit in with the rest of her class, so books became very important in her life. Still, she never planned to become a writer. Why would anyone want to spend all that time writing a book when there were so many great books to be read?
Kristin studied German at Swarthmore College. While working on her Film and Video MFA thesis at American University, she recalled the stories of her grandfather, Harry Otis Sims, about growing up in Moundville, Alabama.
Kristin was surprised to discover the racism her grandfather observed and the contact he had with the black families. She was also amazed at how much freedom children enjoyed back then. They go off on their own all day long without any supervision at all! Her grandfather’s memories inspired her first book The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had. Although she first planned for it to be a movie, she quickly changed it unto a novel for middle schoolers. It took about eight years to be released.
With two very small daughters at home, Kristin does most of her writing at nap time, about three hours a day. In her spare time, she enjoys reading fantasy/sci-fi novels. Though she enjoys writing historical fiction novels, she says that there might be a fantasy or sci-fi novel in her future! She and her family live in Alexandria, Virginia.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview : Author Turf
Author interview : Penguin - Teachers & Librarians
Also by Kristin Levine:
The Lions of Little Rock. Putnam. 2012.
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had. Putnam. 2009.
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In 1951 Brooklyn, New York, Pete spends his time following the Giants baseball team and trying to be a detective. When the FBI shows up accusing Pete’s father of being a Communist, Pete’s classmates turn against him. Pete decides to uncover the truth, but worries it could put his family’s livelihood and freedom at risk.
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine
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