Our Friday Book Club pick this week is Tony Johnston’s Bone by Bone.

David is nine. He knows all the bones of the human body. When he was born, his father hung a skeleton in his room and taught him the names, bone by bone by bone. David is going to be a doctor like his father.

David’s best friend is Malcolm. He knows the bone names too.

But this is Tennessee in the 1950s—the deep South of America, and a time of brutal racial intolerance and tension. It’s the territory of the secret society of white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan–and Malcolm is black.

Drawing on her own childhood memories, Tony Johnston, one of America’s most revered writers, brings us a universal story of the innocent purity of friendship amidst the bone-chilling horror of racism.

You can find notes for your reading group here. Be in touch via facebook or twitter to let us know what you think!