The Lucky Ones

ca*Signed Bookplate*

Award-winning author Linda Williams Jackson pulls from her own childhood in the Mississippi Delta to tell the story of Ellis Earl, who dreams of a real house, food enough for the whole familyand to be someone.

Its 1967, and eleven-year-old Ellis Earl Brown has big dreams. Hes going to grow up to be a teacher or a lawyeror maybe bothand live in a big brick house in town. Therell always be enough food in the icebox, and his mama wont have to run herself ragged looking for work as a maid in order to support Ellis Earl and his eight siblings and niece, Vera.

So Ellis Earl applies himself at school, soaking up the lessons that Mr. Foster teaches his classparticularly those about famous colored people like Mr. Thurgood Marshall and Miss Marian Wrightand borrowing books from his teachers bookshelf. When Mr. Foster presents him with a copy ofCharlie and the Chocolate Factory,Ellis Earl is amazed to encounter a family thats even worse off than his ownand is delighted by the Buckets very happy ending.

But when Mama tells Ellis Earl that he might need to quit school to help support the family, he wonders if happy endings are only possible in storybooks.

Around the historical touchstone of Robert Kennedys southern poverty tour, Linda Williams Jackson pulls from her own childhood in the Mississippi Delta to tell a detail-rich and poignant story with memorable characters, sure to resonate with readers who have ever felt constricted by their circumstances.