The Nickel Boys

The subject matter of The Nickel Boys—a cruel Florida reform school for boys at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement—felt daunting amidst all my summertime books, but I would follow Colson Whitehead’s acclaimed writing down any path. The main character is an exceptional child named Elwood Curtis who was left behind by his parents and raised by his grandmother. Elwood has a penchant for Martin Luther King, Jr’s speeches and has his sights set on college. Just as he heads off to start college courses, by a sick twist of fate he finds himself instead in the famed Nickel Academy, where boys are meant to be reformed and taught the way to be in society. As you might expect, Elwood soon learns that this institution of abuse and horror is the exact opposite of societal. Based on a real reform school in Florida that carried on for more than a century, this book takes us deep into the lives of these boys and the injustice they endured.