It’s two months after Rev. King’s murder. It’s four days since Bobby Kennedy was shot, and Franklin Roosevelt Cribbs is going to camp. “Cribbsy,” barely out of high school, suspects that this is no normal summer. He swiftly discovers that this is no normal summer camp. Camp Nantoka is a raw slice of Chicago, stretching from its neurotic suburbs to its darkest ghettos. Nor are Cribbsy’s sixteen 11-year-olds normal. They’re “gifted,” chosen to spend ten intensive weeks studying the arts, music and theater, guided by eccentric professors from universities throughout the Midwest. In the mosquito-plagued Wisconsin woods, the tempestuous Sixties unfold in dizzying microcosm. Cribbsy bumbles into the racial anger that tears at America. He plays softball with ex-gangbangers. Before he knows what’s happening, he’s in love, with a streetwise poetess whom he has no business loving. On a day off just before the explosive ’68 Democratic Convention, Cribbsy is surrounded and menaced by angry Chicago police. Caught between high school and history, Cribbsy has to change, learn and grow up fast lest he fall victim to events that threaten to trample him before he can get out of their way.

AWARDS: Independent Press Awards, Distinguished Favorite, Historical Fiction, 2019. Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Notable 100, Historical Fiction, 2020.