Devil on My Heels

This story takes place either in the late fifties or early sixties in Florida. The main characters are Dove, a 15-year-old girl whose father owns an orange grove; Gator, a young black male who picks oranges; Chase, the object of Dove's attentions; Travis, the crew boss for the pickers, and Delia, the household maid, also black.

Migrant workers do the picking of the oranges. Dove and Gator sort of become friends, but Dove realizes that such a friendship between a white girl and a black male is definitely frowned upon, and she stands by when Gator gets beaten up by a couple of white punks.

The story gets much more complex, though, as it involves the lives of the migrant workers and how they are basically cheated by Travis and his “company store” that sells goods to the workers. The workers are unhappy, but a group stands ready and vigilant to stop their uprising – the KKK.

A lightning strike on the barn belonging to Dove's father gets interpreted as the barn being set fire to by someone, even though Dove herself saw the lightning hit the barn and said so over and over. A clothesline filled with clothes in the migrant camp gets set on fire, and pressure builds against the workers until a direct confrontation with the KKK is inevitable. Worse yet, Dove finds out someone close to her is actually a member of the KKK, and she suspects another person close to her is also in the group.

This is a really, really good young adult novel. It's realistic, gritty, and deals with a variety of issues at the same time, including the KKK, prejudice against blacks, and prejudice against migrant workers. This is one of the best young adult novels I have read in a while.

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