Publication Date: April 23, 2024
It was only supposed to be a high school football game. But when racial tensions spill from the bleachers, one person is left bleeding on the field. Senior linebacker Ben Hoy is still reeling with emotion when the local news arrives and asks what he’s feeling. His answer changes his life.
Ben’s call for peace and unity spark a firestorm. His coach urges the team to put the “incident” behind them, calling the victim a thug and placing the blame the other school and town council for their decision to relocate a confederate statue. For Ben, it’s not so simple. As a White person, he’s never given much thought to the statue but is jolted by the violence at the stadium. So when the school superintendent requests he take part in a press conference with opposing linebacker, Devin Calloway, who is Black, Ben reluctantly agrees. He isn’t even out of the parking lot before his first death threat rolls in.
No longer welcome at his own school, Ben enrolls across town, where he and Devin find resistance from all sides as they push to make their town a better place for their younger siblings. Ben finds he’s not the only one making sacrifices. A pro-monument demonstration is gaining traction, inching closer to the Calloway’s family music store. Soon Ben and Devin are thrust into the thick of violence, once again, where they can only hope their calls for unity have made any difference at all.
A cross-town football rivalry explodes as a community gets caught up in controversy surrounding the relocation of a Confederate monument.
Author S.A. Fanning takes a page from current events in Hometown. Narrated by Ben, a white football player, the story traces a community at odds, seemingly divided along racial lines.
However, Ben sees beyond the color. His call for unity put him at odds with his coach, his friends, and even members of the community. He and the opposing linebacker, Devin, soon discover they have much in common despite their differing skin color.
The tension is thick and palpable within the story as Ben must decide whether to stand his ground or get caught up in the controversy. Without taking a side, the author demonstrates the value of unity.
Hometown ultimately tells the story of two teens who want to make their community better in spite of long-held prejudices.
Pete has written more than fifteen books, ranging from middle grade to new adult. In 2021, his middle grade novel, Bricktown Boys, won the Indies Today best juvenile fiction category. He lives in Virginia with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
