~Book Review - Crossing Blood by Nanci Kincaid~

I love Nanci Kincaid. I haven't read all of her novels as of yet. Crossing Blood is a wonderful story which takes place during the 1960s in Tallahassee Florida. Lucy Conyers, her mom, stepdad, and brothers Roy and Benny, live on California Street in the last house in the white section, right where the pavement ends. Directly next door to Lucy and her family live The Williams...Melvina, who cleans their house, Old Alfonso, her philandering husband, and their many children. Lucy has her eye on Skippy Williams. She wants Skippy to take notice of her...and not just as a "yellow haired girl".

~So I don't know why I bother with it. Skippy Williams. I just get
this idea sometimes that I want him to like me. It's crazy and
the idea goes away. Besides, I know that deep down Skippy has
got to be a hotshot colored boy now, because later on me and
Roy are going to be hotshot white people. He can't waste his
chance.~

My Thoughts: This is one of those books where I am practically speechless as to how to describe how I feel about it. I don't want to say too much and give away the story. I am afraid that I will say too little and not do the book justice. What I can say is this: This book has all of my favorites wrapped up into one; coming-of-age, the south (Florida Fiction, which I love), the 1960's and The Civil Rights Movement. These are the genres that I enjoy reading the most, and I feel lucky to have stumbled upon Crossing Blood.

I feel that maybe I haven't given enough background on the book, so here is a description from Amazon:

From School Library Journal
YA-- With a palpable sense of place and soul-stirring prose, Kincaid's first novel weaves a delicate tale about transitions, as told by Lucy Conyers, a native of Tallahassee during the early 1960s. In a small town where civil rights struggles were only beginning to have an impact, the customs and mores of the Old South control nearly every aspect of her life. As the head of a white family living at the edge of the black section of town, Lucy's hard-working stepfather struggles to keep his family solvent and separate from the neighbors. Lucy's dilemma springs from her curiosity, admiration, and finally love for Skippy, the boy next door who is black. With hesitant and clandestine moves, she innocently tries to develop something more than a child's relationship with him, but events in the adult world prevent anything more than the most rudimentary of romances before their contact is forever broken. The sad, but not tragic, ending fits the story in a realistic way that speaks of Kincaid's knowledge of life in this region 30 years ago. This is a coming-of-age tale certain to stir the hearts of YA readers.
- Carolyn E. Gecan, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA

I will keep this book on my bookshelf, so that I may be able to read it again in the future...

FIVE STARS

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: University Alabama Press; 1 edition (July 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0817310096