Staff Pick of the Week: Alligator Bayou

This week's book pick is Alligator Bayou by Donna Jo Napoli.

It's 1899 in Tallulah, Louisiana, and Calogero and his Sicilian family are caught in between a town full of Jim Crow laws and recent memories of the Civil War. Scorned by most of the whites of the town and feared by most of the African-American community, a friendly face is hard to come by. But there's Patricia, a girl who decides to look beyond the fear and mistrust, and Calogero finds himself falling for her. Patricia's friendship, however, will not be enough to save Calogero and his family when many of the whites of Tallulah decide they no longer want the Sicilian family in their midst.