JUBILEE JOURNEY

Meyer connects generations in this sequel to White Lilacs (1993), set 75 years later, as 13-year-old Emily Rose goes from Connecticut to Texas to celebrate Juneteenth with her 87-year-old great-grandmother Rose Lee. It's a journey of self-discovery in more ways than one: Biracial Emily Rose knows more about her father's French-Canadian family than her mother's African- American heritage, and is puzzling over her sense of identity. She and her two brothers are not prepared for the discrimination they encounter on the bus trip, the church burnings they hear discussed, or the sharp racial divisions they see when they arrive. Still, their eyes aren't really opened until brother Steven is beaten and arrested for hanging out with a white girl. Meyer develops the story at a leisurely pace, introducing large numbers of people, switching the point of view from Emily Rose to Rose Lee at odd moments, repeating thoughts or anecdotes, weaving in elements—e.g., Emily Rose's new journal, mentioned once, and her feelings about being biracial—then leaving them to dangle. Patient readers will be rewarded by learning how the characters of the first book turned out and will come to admire the lively young protagonist who shares her great-grandmother's strength of character. (Fiction. 11-15)