THE NICKEL BOYS.

• Author: Ciaramella, C.J.

Colson Whitehead's follow-up to his Pulitzer-winning The Underground Railroad is The Nickel Boys, a historical novel about two black teenagers, Elwood and Turner, and their time at the Nickel Academy in the early 1960s.

The academy is a fictional version of the Dozier School for Boys, an infamous Florida reformatory that operated for more than 100 years. In 2014, researchers began finding unmarked graves on the property.

Elwood is smart and eager to please. His favorite album is a recording of Martin Luther King speeches. He's collegebound when he hitches a ride in a stolen car, is arrested, and gets sent to Nickel. He quickly discovers that well-manicured grounds hide the ugly reality of brutal corporal punishment, rape, and murder.

Elwood's best friend at Nickel, Turner, is a runaway who sees the world as a...