Skunktown

With echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn, Skunktown tells the haunting story of twelve-year-old Lyman Polly, who comes of age in a small New England town during the turbulent summer of 1968. Now an old man on hospice care, Lyman recounts the story to his nurse, finally ready to unburden the " terrible secret" he has carried for more than fifty years. At its center is Maddy Skanks, a brilliant Black girl who opens his eyes to literature, jazz, and the realities of growing up Black in America— and teaches him, most importantly, to trust his own heart. But in a town shaped by prejudice and fear, their friendship is tested when tragedy strikes. Lyman is quickly named a suspect, and in his desperate search for truth, he steps into a dangerous investigation that will define— and haunt— the rest of his life. A gripping coming-of-age mystery about race, memory, and the cost of silence.