The Reckoning

A powerful contemporary novel about an aspiring 12 year-old filmmaker whose world is turned upside down when his grandfather is slain in a senseless and racist act of violence. From the author of the award-winning memoir, Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South and co-editor of Recognize! An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life.

"A powerful reminder to never stop speaking the truth." -Kirkus Reviews

Lamar can't wait to start his filmmaking career like his idol Spike Lee. And leave behind his small town of Morton, Louisiana. But for now, Lamar has to learn how to be a filmmaker while getting to know his grandfather.

When Gramps talks about his activism and Black history, Lamar doesn't think much about it. Times have changed since the old Civil Rights days! Right? He has a white friend named Jeff who wants to be a filmmaker, too, even though Jeff's parents never let him go to Lamar's Black neighborhood. But there's been progress in town. Right?

Then Gramps is killed in a traffic altercation with a white man claiming self-defense. But the Black community knows better: Gramps is another victim of racial violence. Protesters demand justice. So does Lamar. But he is also determined to keep his grandfather's legacy alive in the only way he knows how: recording a documentary about the fight against injustice.

From the critically acclaimed author and the publisher of Just Us Books, Wade Hudson comes a riveting, timely, and deeply moving story about a young Black filmmaker whose eyes are opened to racial injustice and becomes inspired to follow in his grandfather's activist footsteps.


About the Author
Wade Hudson is an author, a publisher, and the president and CEO of Just Us Books, Inc., an independent publisher of books for children and young adults. He has published over thirty books, including the anthologies We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, which received four starred reviews; The Talk, which earned four starred reviews and was a New York Times Best Book of the Year; and Recognize: Black Lives Matter. These powerful collections were co-edited with his wife, Cheryl Willis Hudson. He also authored the middle grade memoir Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South, winner of the Malka Penn award.

Wade lives in East Orange, New Jersey, with his wife.