In the opening scene of Robin Farmer’s debut young adult novel, “Malcolm and Me,” Roberta Forest is in a class at the Catholic school she attends. The teacher, a nun, asks how Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence when, at the time, he held slaves. Roberta’s answer? Jefferson was a hypocrite.
The year is 1973, and the nun responds to Roberta by telling her to get on a boat and go back to Africa. A fight ensues, and Roberta is suspended.
Although the incident opens a work of fiction, it actually happened to an 11-year-old Farmer. “I thought what I was saying was the correct thing,” she says. “I wasn’t trying to be a show pony or a smartass.”
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