Leaving Lymon

Holiday House, 2021

A Kirkus Review Best Book of the Year

A companion novel to Finding Langston, recipient of a Coretta Scott King Writing Honor and winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Behind every bad boy is a story worth hearing and at least one chance for redemption. It's 1946 and Lymon, uprooted from his life in the Deep South and moved up North, needs that chance.

Lymon's father is, for the time being, at Parchman Farm--the Mississippi State Penitentiary--and his mother, whom he doesn't remember all that much, has moved North. Fortunately, Lymon is being raised by his loving grandparents. Together, Lymon and his grandpops share a love of music, spending late summer nights playing the guitar.

But Lymon's world as he knows it is about to dissolve. He will be sent on a journey to two Northern cities far from the country life he loves--and the version of himself he knows. In this companion novel to the Coretta Scott King Honor wining Finding Langston, readers will see a new side of the bully Lymon in this story of an angry boy whose raw talent, resilience, and devotion to music help point him in a new direction.

★ "Balancing rich history and timeless themes of race, instability, and the importance of music and the arts, this title is another must-have from Cline-Ransome." —School Library Journal, Starred Review

A Junior Library Guild Selection

★ Starred review, School Library Journal

★ Starred review, Kirkus

★ Starred review, Horn Book

Evanston Public Library 2020 Best Books for Kids

A Kirkus Review Best Book of the Year

A Junior Library Guild Selection

Best Multicultural Children's Book by the Center for the Study of

Multicultural Children's Literature

A Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Book

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