All thirteen-year old Nita Simmons has ever wanted is to be a journalist, but when she flubs a piece for her middle school newspaper she becomes a laughingstock at school and risks losing her coveted membership to the Junior Journalists Club. Nita’s confidence is at an all-time low when Earl Melvin, her reclusive neighbor and the town’s most notorious criminal–picks that day to speak to her. Mr. Melvin offers Nita a story–some old books he refers to as his memoirs. Nita can’t help but read the books, and what she finds is not violence but a tale of secret love and heartbreak in the Virginia back roads. Still dealing with her recent failure, Nita can’t believe that no one’s ever questioned such injustice in her own town. Sensing redemption, she dives into the research, getting to know the neighbor her mother warned her about.
-
Sexual Content - 2/5
2/5
-
Violence - 2/5
2/5
-
Language - 1/5
1/5
-
Drugs and Alcohol - 0/5
0/5
Summary
From: Carol Pennington
Book Title: Justice in a Bottle
Book Author: Pete Fanning
What do you like about this book:
A young aspiring journalist, Nita Simmons has just made her first retraction. She went out on a limb for a big story in her middle school newspaper by not verifying all her facts before she published her story. Her facts were faulty and now she is the laughing stock of the school and is down on herself. She soon stumbles onto an even bigger story and as it unfolds she wonders if she has what it takes.
This is a very good, and clean, coming of age story. It has only one curse word and no sex scenes. The story revolves around Civil Rights and the author does a great job bring it to life. There is talk of some historical violence, but it is not overly graphic. I highly recommend this book.
Your ratings of the level of sex, violence, language and drug/alcohol use on a scale of 1-5.
Sex:2
Violence:2
Language:1
Drug/Alcohol use:0