The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had

A powerful story about race and an unlikely friendship from award-winning author of The Lions of Little Rock.

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

The last thing Harry “Dit” Sims expects when Emma Walker comes to town is to become friends. Proper-talking, brainy Emma doesn’t play baseball or fish too well, but she sure makes Dit think, especially about the differences between black and white in the 1910s.

But soon Dit is thinking about a whole lot more when the town barber, who is black, is put on trial for a terrible crime. Together Dit and Emma come up with a daring plan to save him from the unthinkable.


★ “Tension builds just below the surface of this energetic, seamlessly narrated first novel set in small-town Alabama in 1917.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ “This classic story of how unlikely persons can change things for the better should appeal to all readers.”—VOYA, starred review