During the pilot year of a Los Angeles school system integration program, Armstrong and Charlie learn to cope with everything from first crushes and playground politics to the loss of loved ones and racial prejudice in the 1970s.
Charlie isn’t looking forward to sixth grade. If he starts sixth grade, chances are he’ll finish it, and he’ll be older than his older brother ever was.
Armstrong isn’t looking forward to sixth grade either. He’ll have to wake up at five-thirty to ride a bus to an all-white school in the Hollywood Hills. When they are assigned seats next to each other, what starts as a rivalry becomes a close friendship.
Set in Los Angeles in the 1970s, Armstrong and Charlie is the funny and heartwarming tale of two boys. Different, yet the same.
"Armstrong and Charlie are endearing and layered protagonists worth cheering for."
–
Horn Book "...will have readers cheering." –
Bulletin * " Unforgettable, well-drawn titular characters are the heart of this deeply moving and laugh-out-loud funny story about family, friendship, integrity, and navigating differences."
–
Kirkus, starred review "This uplifting and touching exploration of friendship, with a vivid setting, is a solid addition to most middle school libraries."
–School Library Journal Armstrong and Charlie is one of those distinctly American books that speaks to us of who we are. It warns us of those forces that divide us, and celebrates the strength of those who can overcome them. Armstrong and Charlie are real kids, and their friendship is a real friendship, and their conflicts are real, and their courageous solutions are real as well. This novel is an exultation of hope--and a dang good story to boot. – Gary Schmidt, Newbery Honor-winning author of
The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now "Frank imbues all of his main players—from Armstrong’s one-legged Korean War veteran father to Charlie’s mother, who is mourning the death of her eldest son—with distinctive voices, giving emotional substance to their triumphs and heartbreaks while never talking down to his audience."--
Association of Jewish Libraries
