The Nickel Boys

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - NATIONAL BESTSELLER - This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. - "One of the most gifted novelists in America today." --NPR

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood's only salvation is his friendship with fellow "delinquent" Turner, which deepens despite Turner's conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers and "should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best" (Entertainment Weekly).

Look for Colson Whitehead's new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!

Publisher: Anchor Books
Published: 06/30/2020
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.5lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.10w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780345804341

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 6.5
Point Value: 10
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 512399 / Nickel Boys


Award: Kirkus Prize - Winner

About the Author
Colson Whitehead is the number one New York Times bestselling author of nine books of fiction and non-fiction, including The Underground Railroad, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award and was named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. He is also a recipient of the MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships. In 2020, he won his second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Nickel Boys. He lives in New York City.