Ted Dunagan

In the best Southern literary tradition, A Yellow Watermelon explores poverty and racial segregation through the eyes of an innocent boy. In rural south Alabama in 1948, whites pick on one side of the cotton field and blacks on the other. Where the fields come together, twelve-year-old Ted Dillon meets Poudlum, a black boy his own age, who teaches him how to endure the hard work while they bond and go on to integrate the field. Through Poudlum and Jake, an escaped black convict, Ted learns of the gathering of evil forces. The white boy and the black boy encounter danger and suspense while executing a plan to save Poudlum's family, set Jake onto a river of freedom, and discover a great, yet simple secret of enlightenment.

In the fall of 1948, in rural south Alabama, Ted and Poudlum have their post-Thanksgiving fishing trip to the Cypress Hole on the Satilfa Creek interrupted by unwelcome visitors--fugitive bank robbers who leave the two boys tied up and stranded beneath the Iron Bridge. They manage to escape their bonds, and also the evil sheriff, by concealing themselves in a secret hidey-hole beneath the bridge. After a brief respite where they help their families make cane syrup and kill pigs for the winter, they return to the Satilfa to search--along with seemingly half the locals--for money rumored to have been hidden by the criminals. However, Ted and Poudlum have a clue no one else possesses--which indirectly leads to their triumph after being trapped in a sleet storm and incarcerated by the sheriff. Through their exposure to some memorable individuals, the boys grow in character and knowledge as the story progresses, and in the end they are serenaded by angelic voices.

Trouble on the Tombigbee is rooted in a steadfast friendship that defies the stereotypes of the 1940's Deep South. It tackles tough historical truths and offers readers the kind of old-fashioned adventure that quickens the heart.