Karen Hesse's newbery award-winning skills are put to great use in, a poetic tale about friendship, fanaticism, and the deadly undercurrents of racial prejudice. The story takes place in a small vermont town in the year ...Karen Hesse's newbery award-winning skills are put to great use in, a poetic tale about friendship, fanaticism, and the deadly undercurrents of racial prejudice. The story takes place in a small vermont town in the year 1924, revealing the devastating impact of the ku klux klan on this pastoral, insular community.