T Michael Doyle

Whitewater, Ohio T Michael Doyle

A teaching colleague, upon reading an early draft of my novel, said, "It's To Kill a Mockingbird meets The Wonder Years." In the summer of 1959, twelve-year-old Kevin O'Toole asked his father why no black people lived in their hometown. His father's explanation made no sense to this bright but naïve boy. However, against the backdrop of an emerging civil rights movement and an historical presidential campaign played out in black and white on television, Kevin becomes increasingly aware that his tiny corner of America is not that much different from those places in the South so prominently featured on the Evening News. Whitewater, Ohio has two major plot strands. The secondary strand involves the growing personal awareness of an early teen fueled by a girl and her mother. The primary plot strand is the story of a town that proudly proclaims its friendliness, but as Kevin learns over an eighteen month span, that congeniality is not extended to everyone. The story shows racism above the Mason-Dixon Line. Jim Crow not only lived in the Deep South in 1960 but also resided in a friendly southern Ohio town. Welcome to Whitewater where everyone is a friend.