How I Shed My Skin: Unlearning the Racist Lessons of a Southern Childhood

Marc Notes: Read by Henry Leyva.; Vendor-supplied metadata.; EBSCO complete collection. Publisher Marketing: In August of 1966, Jim Grimsley entered the sixth grade in the same public school he had attended for the five previous years, in his small eastern North Carolina hometown. But he knew that the first day of this school year was going to be different: for the first time he'd be in a classroom with black children. That was the year federally mandated integration of the schools went into effect, at first allowing students to change schools through "freedom of choice," replaced two years later by forced integration. For Jim, going to one of the private schools that almost immediately sprang up was not an option: his family was too poor to consider paying tuition, and while they shared the community's dismay over the mixing of the races, they had bigger, more immediate problems to contend with. Now, over forty years later, Grimsley, a critically acclaimed novelist, revisits that school and those times, remembering his own personal reaction to his first real exposure to black children and to their culture, and to his growing awareness of his own mostly unrecognized racist attitudes. Good White People is both true and deeply moving, an important work that takes readers inside those classrooms and onto the playing fields as, ever so tentatively, alliances were forged and friendships established. Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 01/15/2015 (EAN 9781616203764, Hardcover) Booklist 02/15/2015 pg. 12 (EAN 9781616203764, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Contributor Bio:  Grimsley, Jim Jim Grimsley is the author of four previous novels, among them "Winter Birds", a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; "Dream Boy", winner of the GLBTF Book Award for literature; "My Drowning", a Lila-Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award winner; and "Comfort and Joy". He lives in Atlanta and teaches at Emory University. Contributor Bio:  Leyva, Henry Henry Leyva's audiobook credits include reading Colin Harrison's "The Havana Room", Michael Palmer's "Fatal", Lawrence Block's "Killing Castro", and John Grisham's "The Testament "as well as works from popular authors such as Nicholas Sparks and Phyllis Naylor. Leyva has appeared in numerous stage and screen productions. His film and television work includes roles on "One Life to Live, Romancing America, The Digital Cafe, The Interrogation", and "The Windigo". He has also performed in a host of off-Broadway productions, including "In the Heights, Love Suicide", and "Guanabaco". He has also performed in voiceovers for commercials, including those for HSBC, Claritin, and the Daily News. He lives in New York City.