Over the Mountain by Katherine P. Stillerman

Over the Mountain is an engrossing work of YA historical fiction by Katherine P. Stillerman, set in the volatile early sixties.

It’s 1961 and sophomore, Harriet Oechsner, has just learned that her minister father had been forced to resign amid parishioner complaints over his liberal views. He’s accepted a new position in Mountain Brook, an affluent suburb of Birmingham, Alabama – where being white and wealthy insulate against the struggle for civil rights taking place on the other side of the mountain. Knowing her father’s outspoken views on racial equality, Harriet secretly wonders how long it’ll be before her family will be forced to leave their new home…

Eloquently written, Over the Mountain captures the essence and mood of the south at a time when civil rights and segregation were juxtaposed by silly social morés requiring white high school girls to join a sorority to have a good social life. It’s a colorful portrait of both a place and an era that may not have the dramatic conflict of other novels about this time period, but is still evocative and immediately engaging.

Stillerman’s solid narrative nevertheless breaks one of the more important fiction writing tenets when readers are “told” about the freedom marches and bombs rather than witnessing them through her characters’ involvement. First-hand accounts pack a visceral punch and could have been more effectively conveyed these important moments in the novel, and in history.

Presented through somewhat rose-tinted lenses, Over the Mountain ultimately provides a captivating entrée of a time that was both innocent and turbulent.