Graham-Felsen’s debut novel is told in the irresistible voice of Dave Greenfeld, aka Green, who faces more than the usual adolescent insecurities as one of two white students in his sixth-grade-class at Boston’s Martin Luther King Middle School. Bullied and lonely, he’s desperate to fit in and at last finds a friend in Marlon, a black schoolmate almost as out of place as Green is: Marlon is nerdy, neurotic, and a big fan of Larry Bird. Together, the boys seem able to stand up to the prevailing assumptions and inequalities, but “the Force,” as Dave calls racial prejudice, is not with them. Speaking as Green, Graham-Felsen, a journalist and chief blogger for Obama’s 2008 campaign, has created a pitch-perfect portrait of young people and the state of 1990s race relations.
Graham-Felsen will be in conversation with Elizabeth Green, who runs the education news website “Chalkbeat.”