For Lamb follows a family striving to better their lives in late 1940s Jackson, Mississippi. Lamb’s mother is a hardworking, creative seamstress who parents with a firm but loving hand to keep her children safe in segregated Jackson. Lamb’s brother has a brilliant mind and has even earned a college scholarship for a Black college up north—if only he could curb his impulsiveness and rebellious nature.
Lamb herself is a quiet and studious girl. She is also naive. As she tentatively accepts the friendly overtures of a white girl who loans her a book she loves, she sets off a calamitous series of events that pulls in her mother, charming hustler uncle, estranged father, and brother, and ends in a lynching,
Award Years
2025-2026
Award Category
SC Young Adult Book Award
