A Yellow Watermelon by Junebug Books author Ted Dunagan will be reviewed in the forthcoming December 1 edition of Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus praises Dunagan’s skillful storytelling and calls the book “a memorable, generous-hearted tale.”

Rooted in the best Southern literary tradition, A Yellow Watermelon takes place in 1940s; it is the story of 12-year-old Ted Dillon who shows enormous courage in befriending a black child and in stepping forward to uncover the duplicity and racist attitudes of the town’s leading citizen. From the review:

“It’s a fine, well-told tale of friendship between two smart, likable boys—one white, one black. In a scene akin to Deborah Wiles’s Freedom Summer (2001), anticipating the Civil Rights movement, Ted tells Poudlum, ‘And someday you gonna be able to walk in that drug store, sit down and have yourself some ice cream. You know what else, one day we’ll be able to go to school together, too.’”

A Yellow Watermelon will be avaliable in November from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.

As NewSouth author John Pritchard wraps up writing The Yazoo Blues, the sequel to his 2005 hit Junior Ray (named one of Barnes & Noble’s 2005 Sensational Debuts), he was interrupted the other day by news of the federal closing of the Platinum Plus club that serves as the inspiration for the Magic Pussy Cabaret & Club in The Yazoo Blues.

Writes Pritchard, “Even though the long—but mostly elastic—arm of the local, and also that of the federal, constabulary—with tarnished badges and secret shame in their blue-serge hearts and also, I am sure, with a gnawing ache in their guilty but plain-clothes souls, has locked tight the doors of this almost mythical refuge, Junior Ray expresses optimism in the last few lines of The Yazoo Blues, where he declares that he is confident that ‘Sex and the Magic Pussy will outlast the law.'”

To read an excerpt from Junior Ray’s adventures inside The Magic Pussy in The Yazoo Blues, visit the Yazoo Blues book page.

The Yazoo Blues is forthcoming from NewSouth Books in fall 2008. Junior Ray, is available directly from NewSouth Books, at Amazon.com, or from your local book retailer.

NewSouth authors Charlotte Miller and Billie Jean Young have both contributed to a new anthology, An Alabama Christmas, from Cliff Road Books.

Miller’s story, also called “An Alabama Christmas,” is the story of a young girl’s Christmas in the Depression-era South, and her father’s struggle to make her Christmas dreams come true. Young’s story is entitled “Fireplace Dolls.” Learn more about the anthology at the Cliff Road Books website, www.cliffroadbooks.com.

Charlotte Miller is the author of Behold, This Dreamer, There is a River, and Through a Glass, Darkly from NewSouth Books. Billie Jean Young is the author of Fear Not the Fall from NewSouth Books. All of these titles are available from your favorite local or online retailer, or at the links above.