THINGS TOO HUGE TO FIX BY SAYING SORRY, by Susan Vaught

The story: Dani's Grandma Ruth has Alzheimer's, and it looks like the truth about her part in the history of the Civil Rights Movement may go to the grave with her, untold. But Dani's been given a rambling manuscript, a key with no lock, and a story written by Grandma's worst enemy--and she intends to use them to unlock the mystery...even when the worst thing that could possibly happen actually DOES.

June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG; Violence PG-13; Sexual content G; Nudity G; Substance abuse PG; Magic & the occult G; GLBT content G; adult themes (racial inequality and prejudice, mention of lynchings and other racially-motivated violence) PG-13; overall rating PG.

Liz's comments: Vaught mentions that, like her main character, she grew up in Oxford Mississippi--but during the time of segregation and the Civil Rights movement. So even though she's a white woman writing the story from the perspective of a child of color, there's a lot that rings true here, and Dani is a likeable but flawed heroine. Her feud with Mac gets a little tiresome before it ends (and especially the epithet of "Worm Dung") but it does relieve the tension a bit to know that, as bad as things were then, and as far as there still is to go, at least nowadays no one is going to kill a white boy if he likes a mixed-race girl.