![]() ![]() Inspired by my grandparents, who defied restrictive covenants and bought a home with the help of a white ally in a neighborhood where they were not at first welcomed but remained to raise their four children, this is my homage to the pioneering and resilient African-American community of Spokane-and by extension the Pacific Northwest-which I experienced growing up in Washington State. ![]() When his moment comes, can Melvin be as mighty on the outside as he actually is on the inside? Melvin’s growing awareness that racism is everywhere-not just in the South where a boy named Emmett Till has been brutally killed by two white men, but also in his own hometown of Spokane-is making him realize he can’t mutely stand by. But there are times when one needs to speak up. When they play music together, Melvin almost feels like he’s talking, no words required. Lenny lives above the town’s infamous (and segregated) Harlem Club. Then Melvin meets Lenny, an outgoing, sax-playing, Italian-Jewish boy determined to be Melvin’s friend. ![]() The closer high school gets, however, the harder it’s becoming to hide his stutter. Melvin Robinson wants a strong, smooth, he-man voice that lets him say what he wants, when he wants-especially to his crush Millie Takazawa, and to Gary Ratliff, who constantly puts him down. Ten-year-old Brendan has a scientific curiosity about life, but the summer he accidentally meets his estranged white grandfather, Brendan suddenly faces questions about race, love, and family that confound his empirical nature. ![]()
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