The Question and Answer section for The Nickel Boys is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
Racism:
Her father died in jail after a white lady downtown accused him of not getting out of her way on the sidewalk. Bumptious contact, as Jim Crow defined it. That’s how it went in the old days. (Chapter 7)
“The world had whispered its rules to...
Elwood Curtis is a young boy who grows up during the period of the Jim Crow laws. He is black and is removed from his local school to a place called the Nickel Academy, which is a place where Elwood gets new friends, but above all a difficult and...
When Elwood “wins” a set of encyclopedias he discovers that they are blank inside. This foreshadows his failed attempts to improve his prospects through education. On his first day of college, Elwood is arrested and sent to the Nickel Academy...
