RONALD KIDD

Ronald Kidd is the author of the highly acclaimed Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial. His novels of adventure, comedy, and mystery have received the Children’s Choice Award, an Edgar Award nomination, and honors from the American Library Association, the Library of Congress, and the New York Public Library. He is a two-time O’Neill playwright who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Visit him at http://www.ronaldkidd.com.

FEATURED TITLE
On Beale Street
On Sale June 2008

rock ¹n¹ roll is
about to change Johnny Ross¹ life

Living in Memphis in 1954, Johnny¹s world is completely segregated -- until he starts sneaking out to Beale Street at night. Beale Street, with its music clubs, is on the wrong side of the tracks, but it¹s the only place Johnny can hear the blues, which is all he cares about. It¹s also near Sun Records, where Johnny finds himself working for Sam Phillips‹and witnessing history in the making when an up-and-coming musician named Elvis records his first song. Nobody has heard anything like it.

All at once Johnny is pulled into a storm of controversy around this new kind of music, just as racial tensions are reaching a breaking point. What started out as a part-time job and a way to get behind the scenes of a record label has gotten out of control. As songs like Elvis¹s start rising up the charts, Johnny sees the power music has to bring people together‹while secrets from the past threaten to tear his black-and-white life apart.

In this searing, cinematic novel, acclaimed writer Ronald Kidd tells a coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of race conflict and the birth of rock ¹n¹ roll.

MORE TITLES BY THIS AUTHOR

Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial		Teddy Roosevelt and the Treasure of Ursa Major