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TELL IT TRUE

Tim Lockette

Lisa Rives had higher expectations for sophomore year. Her beauty queen mom wonders why she can't be more like other 15-year-old girls in their small Alabama town. Lisa's Dad, well, she suspects he's having an affair with a colleague at his top-secret job. Her friend Preethy seems to be drifting away, and Lisa spends her schooldays dodging creepy boys and waiting to graduate. Then she finds herself in charge of her high school newspaper, which is the last thing she wanted--school newspapers are for popular kids and club-joiners, not outcasts like her, and besides, the stories are never about anything you actually want to know. But after accidentally tipping the scales in the school election, then deciding to cover a “real” story--the upcoming execution of a local man charged with mur-der--and becoming a surprise news story herself, Lisa learns some hard lessons about friendship and truth-telling. As Lisa navigates the dilemmas, challenges, and unintended consequences of journalism, she finds her life--and her convic-tions--changing in ways she couldn't have imagined. Tell It True is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes devastating, always relatable coming-of-age story about the importance of speaking the truth in a world of denial and fake news.
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Published 2021-09-01 by Seven Stories Press

Comments

[...]Through the act of bearing witness, Lisa evolves from a reluctant student editor to a budding journalist. She leaves the death chamber observation room changed, and readers are likely to turn the final page of her story with new perspectives as well. -- The New York Times Book review Read more...

Review The New York Times Book Review

Tell it True is a compelling look at what it means to seek the truth, no matter where it will lead. Its bold, clear-eyed heroine goes on a journey from cynical high school outsider to ‘real' journalist, and her hard-won wisdom will stay with you. -- Lindsey Klingele, author of The Truth Lies Here

Quote Blurb

Like the best journalism, Tim Lockette's novel, Tell it True pulls no punches. It refuses to sugar coat the realities of being a teenager -- family struggles, friendship, the feeling that you don't belong --while also challenging readers to think about what it means to have integrity in a world that often rewards looking the other way. Laugh-out-loud funny and painfully real, Tell it True asks you to see the world differently -- to give a damn. -- Bryan Bliss, National Book Award Long-Listed Author of We'll Fly Away

Quote Blurb

[...]Fans of thrillers and truth-seeking protagonists will enjoy this fast-paced coming-of-age read, which lends a voice to the call for a more conscious society. -- School Library Journal

Quote School Library Journal

A story of journalistic freedom, press transparency, and the ethics of the death penalty, Tim Lockette's latest novel for young adults, Tell It True, follows a teenage reporter who fights to cover for her school paper the upcoming execution of a man imprisoned on death row. Read interview with the author: Read more...

Interview Client

Wry, engrossing, even occasionally funny -- right up to a gut-wrenching capper. --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Quote Kirkus Reviews