I'm 40% done with this book and so far there is zero plot. The same thing keeps happening over and over again. Well-meaning Moses gets in trouble and his too-perfect dad has all the right things to say. Boo Nanny says something wise and folksy. Rinse and repeat.

The book is well-written and the historical setting is intriguing (particularly for readers who know that Jim Crow and segregation are coming), but it's taking so long to get to the, you know, story that I'm losing interest and feeling exasperated.

UPDATE

I finally finished and I will say that the final third of the book is much more gripping than the rest of it. I'm giving it three stars because it's not a bad book. Still, I can't get behind it. It's overly didactic. It takes too long to get interesting. And I would rather read an interesting nonfiction book about the 1898 Wilmington coup d'etat. ( )

Would be a good, educational read for the boys. It is so difficult to know that stories like these are a part of our nation's history. ( )

Goodreads Review:
The summer of 1898 is filled with ups and downs for 11-year-old Moses. He's growing apart from his best friend, his superstitious Boo-Nanny butts heads constantly with his pragmatic, educated father, and his mother is reeling from the discovery of a family secret. Yet there are good times, too. He's teaching his grandmother how to read. For the first time she's sharing stories about her life as a slave. And his father and his friends are finally getting the respect and positions of power they've earned in the Wilmington, North Carolina, community. But not everyone is happy with the political changes at play and some will do anything, including a violent plot against the government, to maintain the status quo.

One generation away from slavery, a thriving African American community—enfranchised and emancipated—suddenly and violently loses its freedom in turn of the century North Carolina when a group of local politicians stages the only successful coup d'etat in US history.

An impossible to put down story about an African American teen and his family caught up in the 1898 race riot in Wilmington, North Carolina. This is a powerful book about a too-often overlooked event in our nation’s history. Author’s Note.

Moses and his parents and grandmother live in Wilmington, North Carolina, at the turn of the 20th century. His mother and grandmother make money keeping house and doing laundry, while his father writes for a newspaper and serves as an elected member of the city council. Moses has a vague understanding that his family has seen struggle he can never comprehend, both from slavery and from post-Civil War prejudice, but now Wilmington seems like a place where different races can live and work next to each other in safety, if not in harmony.

But Moses is beginning to learn more about his family’s history and his city’s present, and he realizes that the old struggles are still fresh in many people’s minds. Among white citizens, a false rumor is stirring up panic about a black uprising; and as whites arm themselves accordingly, Wilmington’s black community fears the unrestrained attacks that may await them at the hands of whites.

Will Moses be able to maintain his way of life, his friendships with blacks and whites, rich and poor? Will his family be able to survive the escalation of prejudice and violence against black people?

I loved the character of Boo Nanny, Moses’ grandmother; but the highlight of this book for me was the relationship between Moses and his father. If I say too much more I might give something away…

Note: I'd stick with ages ten and up on this one. ( )