Copies of the book are available at the library, or in our library catalog in e-audiobook or e-book formats. This program is for adults. Registration is not required.
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and communityheaven and earth--that sustain us.
Today's hours
We're open 10:00AM to 9:00PM
Mon, Nov 11 | Closed |
(Veterans Day Holiday) | |
Tue, Nov 12 | 10:00AM to 9:00PM |
Wed, Nov 13 | 10:00AM to 9:00PM |
Thu, Nov 14 | 10:00AM to 9:00PM |
Fri, Nov 15 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Sat, Nov 16 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Sun, Nov 17 | Closed |
The 35,000 square foot facility offers a full range of services including books, magazines, DVDs, Internet & Wi-Fi access, eight meeting rooms, screened-in reading porch, and a beautiful outdoor garden space. After-hours book drops are located on either side of the library. The Riverview Public Library also includes a Café space sponsored by Mosaic that includes vending machines and tables and a Friends of the Riverview Library bookstore.
The Children's Room and Early Learning HIVE will provide a kid-friendly space for preschool and elementary age customers and their parents or caregivers. In addition to the collection of children's books and DVDs, the room offers computers configured just for kids and child-sized tables and chairs.