Karyn Parsons

How High The Moon

  • How High The Moon

  • _____

    Boston was nothing like South Carolina. Up there, colored folks could go anywhere they wanted. Folks didn't wait for church to dress in their fancy clothes. Fancy was just life. Mama was a city girl . . . and now I was going to be one too.

    It's 1944, and in a small, Southern, segregated town, eleven-year-old Ella spends her summers running wild with her cousins and friends.

    But life isn't always so sunny.

    The deep racial tension that simmers beneath their town's peaceful facade never quite goes away, and Ella misses her mama - a beautiful jazz singer, who lives in Boston.

    So when an invitation arrives to come to Boston for a visit Ella is ecstatic - and the trip proves life-changing in more ways than one. For the first time, Ella sees what life outside of segregation is like, and begins to dream of a very different future.

    But her happiness is shattered when she returns home to the news that her classmate has been arrested for the murder of two white girls - and nothing will ever be the same again.

    A beautifully written and deeply moving story about finding and fighting for your place in the world.

Karyn Parsons is perhaps best known for her role as Will Smith's ditsy cousin Hilary Banks on NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After leaving acting behind, Karyn went on to found and produce Sweet Blackberry, an award-winning series of children's animated films, to share stories about unsung black heroes in history, featuring narration from stars such as Alfre Woodard, Queen Latifah and Chris Rock. The serie has been screened on HBO and Netflix, and is enjoyed by schools and libraries across the USA. How High The Moon is Karyn's self-authored debut middle grade novel. She lives and works in New York.

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