Leaving Lymon

By Lesa Cline-Ransome

Part of the Finding Langston series

A boy's journey from the South to the North tests his resilience and love for music.

4.3/5 Goodreads · 774 ratings

112 pages

$8.99Save 7%

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Bookroo's summary

In 1946, Lymon is uprooted from the Deep South to the unfamiliar North. With his father imprisoned and his mother distant, he clings to music shared with his grandfather. As his world shifts, Lymon faces a journey through Northern cities, challenging his identity and revealing a new side of himself. Can his raw talent and resilience guide him toward redemption, or will the anger within consume him? Discover the story of a boy whose devotion to music might just be his saving grace.

From the publisher

A companion novel to Finding Langston, recipient of a Coretta Scott King Writing Honor and winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Behind every bad boy is a story worth hearing and at least one chance for redemption. It’s 1946 and Lymon, uprooted from his life in the Deep South and moved up North, needs that chance. Lymon’s father is, for the time being, at Parchman Farm–the Mississippi State Penitentiary–and his mother, whom he doesn’t remember all that much, has moved North. Fortunately, Lymon is being raised by his loving grandparents. Together, Lymon and his grandpops share a love of music, spending late summer nights playing the guitar. But Lymon’s world as he knows it is about to dissolve. He will be sent on a journey to two Northern cities far from the country life he loves–and the version of himself he knows. In this companion novel to the Coretta Scott King Honor wining Finding Langston, readers will see a new side of the bully Lymon in this story of an angry boy whose raw talent, resilience, and devotion to music help point him in a new direction. A Junior Library Guild Selection!

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