Maggie Rose and Sass explores the differences between two races and the culture of the times. The novel is set in 1888 in a fictional town based on Nicodemus, Kansas, a town settled eleven years earlier by ex-slaves from Kentucky. Life in Georgia with an ugly-tempered, racist grandmother has not prepared the orphaned Maggie Rose for Solomon Town whose citizens are almost all black. Sass has lived all her life in Solomon Town, the daughter of an ex-slave mother and a free-born, educated, mixed-race father. Raised in such totally different cultures, the two girls are bound to clash. "Insightfully written...historically moving" -Angela Bates, Nicodemus Descendant, Historian, and Author (Recipient of the 2005 Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award) "A memorable addition to Kansas young adult fiction. Solidly based on historical fact, yet illustrates some perpetual truths. It is a celebration of both the pioneer spirit and of diversity. Readers will not soon forget this book." -Roy Bird, former Director of the Kansas Center for the Book, Author of Little Ike: Dwight D. Eisenhower's Abilene Boyhood and Hark! I Hear a Meadowlark!