sleepyGRAY BABY by Scott Loring Sanders (Houghton Mifflin, 2009) is the story of Clifton. On his 8th birthday, Cliff is sitting in the back seat of the family car heading to the drive-in with his parents. Police stop the car, drag his father from the vehicle and beat him to death. His crime: driving a new car with a white woman passenger. Never mind that the woman is Cliff's mother. The death is ruled an accident.
Flash forward 8 years. Cliff's mother is a barely functioning alcoholic. Cliff is isolated from everything and everyone. The release of some balloons by his class at school does give him an idea of how to connect to SOMEBODY. Cliff places notes into his mother's empty wine bottles and sets them adrift in the river. One day, he receives a response from his letters. Ultimately, Cliff becomes friends with Swamper, an old man who lives outside of town. The friendship will be essential to Cliff as he deals with new obstacles in his life and the lives of those he loves.
"History" (yes, I know that this is not history to those who read this blog but it is to the resident of the back bedroom and many other teens) comes alive in this story of a young man's search for his own identity and for some justice for his murdered father. What Cliff learns is an important lesson for us all: sometimes there is no justice. But perhaps there is some redemption.
No cover to show as Amazon's cover is "locked" and Titlewave did not have one available.