A Sitting in St. James

Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award!

Monumental. --Booklist (starred review)

A marathon masterpiece.--Kirkus (starred review)

Necessary.--SLJ (starred review)

Shocking and dramatic.--Shelf Awareness (starred review)

Mesmerizing, confounding and vividly rendered.--Book Page (starred review)

Williams-Garcia's storytelling is magnificent; her voice honest and authentic.--Horn Book (starred review)

1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family's objections, to sit for a portrait.

While Madame plots her last hurrah, stories that span generations--from the big house to out in the fields--of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved, come to light to reveal a true portrait of the Guilberts.

This astonishing novel from three-time National Book Award finalist Rita Williams-Garcia about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork--empathetic, brutal, and entirely human--and essential reading for both teens and adults grappling with the long history of American racism.

Author: Rita Williams-Garcia
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Published: 05/25/2021
Pages: 480
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.60w x 1.90d
ISBN: 9780062367297
Age Range: 13-17

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 03/01/2021 pg. 53
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2021
Publishers Weekly 04/05/2021
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 05/01/2021
School Library Journal 05/01/2021 pg. 90
Horn Book Magazine 05/01/2021 pg. 146
Shelf Awareness 06/01/2021