Newbery award-winning author Karen Cushman examines tough issues in her latest historical novel, The Loud Silence of Francine Green: prejudice, Communism, the true meaning of Christian charity, the First Amendment, and taking a stand for what you believe in. 

Through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Francine Green, a Catholic schoolgirl in Los Angeles in 1950, readers experience the disquieting spread of McCarthyism in post-war America.  Set against a backdrop of Hollywood celebrities and their movies, soda fountains, and presidential radio broadcasts, Francine endures the daily bullying of Sister Basil the Great, though the nun’s fury usually targets the outspoken Sophie Bowman, Francine’s best friend. 

“I wanted to ask some questions . . . and I was punished for the sin of intellectual curiosity,” Sophie complains early in the novel.  She is a sharp contrast to Francine, to whom staying out of trouble is paramount.

As the story unfolds and all foreigners or nonconformists are suspected of being “subversive,” Francine gradually understands the importance of questioning authority and making her voice heard.