Two young women with drastically different life experiences struggle to navigate the Jim
Crow era’s turbulent waters in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, 1895. Bordered by mountains and the mighty Potomac
and Shenandoah rivers, the area’s scenic beauty is legendary. A dark current is rippling
through the town, however, and threatening to tear lives apart.
Ida Mae Parker will soon graduate from high school. Although her parents want her to
become a teacher, she yearns to become a professional singer. A descendant of
enslaved people, Ida Mae wants to focus on her studies and to stay away from trouble
caused by the Jim Crow laws designed to keep Black people from thriving. As racial
ugliness targets her own family, though, she struggles to find her place in the world.
Circumstances force Hazel Whitaker to leave her poor white family and support herself.
Finding only wretched jobs, her survival becomes difficult. She longs to create a better
future for herself, but her dearest dream of becoming a photographer seems impossible
to achieve.
Hazel and Ida Mae have nothing in common. When fate throws them together,
however, an unlikely friendship emerges. After tragedies strike, will supporting each
other provide the inner strength that Ida Mae and Hazel need to stand tall for
themselves?
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Crow era’s turbulent waters in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, 1895. Bordered by mountains and the mighty Potomac
and Shenandoah rivers, the area’s scenic beauty is legendary. A dark current is rippling
through the town, however, and threatening to tear lives apart.
Ida Mae Parker will soon graduate from high school. Although her parents want her to
become a teacher, she yearns to become a professional singer. A descendant of
enslaved people, Ida Mae wants to focus on her studies and to stay away from trouble
caused by the Jim Crow laws designed to keep Black people from thriving. As racial
ugliness targets her own family, though, she struggles to find her place in the world.
Circumstances force Hazel Whitaker to leave her poor white family and support herself.
Finding only wretched jobs, her survival becomes difficult. She longs to create a better
future for herself, but her dearest dream of becoming a photographer seems impossible
to achieve.
Hazel and Ida Mae have nothing in common. When fate throws them together,
however, an unlikely friendship emerges. After tragedies strike, will supporting each
other provide the inner strength that Ida Mae and Hazel need to stand tall for
themselves?
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
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Used availability for Kathleen Ernst's Between These Rivers