The Lynching of Louie Sam by Elizabeth Stewart

I apologize for the poor quality picture. Goodreads Jpeg wouldn't attach to this blog for some reason!

Book: The Lynching of Louie Sam

Author: Elizabeth Stewart

Release date (if applicable): July 24, 2012

Synopsis: Louie Sam, a 13 year old tribal member of the Sto:lo tribe (Canada) is accused of murder in a Washington territory town. A mob goes to collect him to bring him to trial. Problem is...he never makes it back to the town. George Gilles, a 15 year old and his friend, Pete, who follow the mob stare in horror as Louie Sam is hung to a cheering crowd. This event could trigger a war between the villagers and the tribe. Did Louie Sam commit the murder or is there something MUCH more sinister going on in that small town?

My rating: 5 Stars and it was well earned!

My opinion: What a dynamic book this was. The story was engrossing and fascinating on many fronts. First, the author sucked me in with the historical perspective of the story. I had never heard of this incredibly sad story of the murder of a 13 year old boy due to mob action and that is where the sadness simply begins. Ms. Stewart slowly, methodically and masterfully unwrapped the storyline to show something much more sinister that was going on in this small town being careful to keep the gut wrenching and spine tingling emotion present.

To boot, Ms. Stewart follows the story with the historical facts behind her book which were as fascinating as her story. Normally, I would skip sections like this but found myself as enthralled with that part of the book as I was the main story.

At 180 some odd pages, this JUVENILE piece of literature showed its' intelligence that quality books targeted towards our youth do not need to have vampires, wolves or popular "mean girls" to be engrossing!

On a side note, there is the instance of the usage of one expletive that personally I found offensive particularly in a book targeted towards young adults. I took the time to check this out with a middle school librarian, a children's librarian and a library director. All assured me that due to the context in which the word was used that it was appropriate.

Source: Netgalley for Annick Press

Would I recommend? : Most definitely, I enjoyed it coming from a 40+ year old perspective. It is among one of the best young adult books I have read in a very long time.