description: Six-year old Clara Bynum is dead, drowned in the Potomac River in the shadow of an apparently haunted rock outcropping known locally as the Three Sisters. In scenes alive with emotional truth, River, Cross My Heart weighs the effect of Clara's absence on the people he has left her parents, Alice and Willie Bynum, torn between the old world of their rural North Carolina home and the new world of the city, to which they have moved in search of a better life for themselves and their children; the friends and relatives of the Bynum family in the Georgetown neighborhood they now call home; and, most especially, Clara's sister, 12 year old Johnnie Mae, who must come to terms with the powerful and confused emotions sparked by her sister's death as she struggles to decide and discover the kind of woman she will become. This highly accomplished first novel resonates with ideas, impassioned lyrics, and poignant historical details as it captures an essential part of the African American Experience in our century.
language: English
title: River, Cross My Heart
titlecomplete: River, Cross My Heart
genres: Fiction, Historical, Coming Of Age, Drama, Adult, Novels, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Historical Fiction, African American
ratings_count: 13753
places: Washington, D.C.
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: ALA Alex Award
publisher: Little, Brown & Co.