# What is this book?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-book/398228>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 31, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-book/398228 "2007-03-31T19:15:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-book/398228/1 "2007-03-31T19:15:40Z")

</div>

I read this book when I was in elementary school (about 30 yrs ago). Here’s what I remember:

The book is fiction. It’s about a little black girl living perhaps late 19th early 20th century. There’s a scene near the beginning of the book where there is a competition to recite Bible verses from memory. The girl (to everyone’s surprise) wins the competition. The prize is a necktie–the competition organizers assumed a boy would win.

Towards the end of the book, her father is injured somehow by a white guy. She finds her father, near death, but he makes her rescue the white guy and leave him.

That’s all I remember about the book. Any ideas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-book/398228/2 "2007-03-31T21:58:02Z")

</div>

Questions about the Arts, including books, do better in Cafe Society. Moved.

**samclem** GQ Moderator

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-book/398228/3 "2007-04-01T01:06:13Z")

</div>

Sorry about that.

I remembered a few more details. The book is set in a rural community (possibly in the South). And the white guy who injures her father is the son of a prominent family in the area.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-book/398228/4 "2007-04-01T01:12:54Z")

</div>

There’s a similar plot in [Words by Heart](http://www.amazon.com/Words-Heart-Ouida-Sebestyen/dp/044041346X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-6592342-5631928?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175389870&sr=1-1). Could that be it?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-book/398228/5 "2007-04-01T02:01:51Z")

</div>

Thanks **AuntiePam**. That is exactly the book.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-book/398228/6 "2007-04-01T02:15:42Z")

</div>

You’re welcome. 🙂