Kim Johnson
BIO
KIM JOHNSON has held leadership positions in social justice organizations as a teen and in college and is now an author and educator. Kim’s debut novel, This Is My America, won numerous accolades, including the Pacific Northwest Book Award and Malka Penn Human Rights Award for Children’s Literature. Her second novel, Invisible Son, is another thriller ripped from the headlines and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the American Library Association Black Caucus Young Adult Honor selection. Both novels were selected as NPR Best Books. The Color of a Lie is her first historical thriller and has received four starred reviews along with being a Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and New York Public Library Best Book of 2024. Kim holds degrees from the University of Oregon and University of Maryland, College Park, and an MFA from Oregon State University Cascades. She lives with her family in the Washington, DC, area.
THE COLOR OF A LIE
Critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Invisible Son and This Is My America, Kim Johnson brings readers her first historical thriller with The Color Of A Lie. Set in a suburb of Philadelphia in 1955, Johnson’s latest novel shares the story of Black teenager Calvin Greene, whose family has chosen to pass for white so they can seek their American dream. But their seemingly idyllic neighborhood is shown to be anything but as its dark secrets begin to unravel. Calvin has passed for white plenty of times before—but when his family is forced to flee Chicago and resettle in the all-white area of Levittown, embracing the new lifestyle his father wants is harder than it sounds. Hiding your true self is exhausting, and the only place Calvin feels at home is in the Black part of town, where he can live his truth and spend time with Lily, his new crush and the only Black student at his high school. But with the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement and the integration of his school, passing starts to feel even more suffocating and dangerous than Calvin could have ever imagined.
Expertly weaving real historical events with important reflections on being Black in America, Johnson says that with the publication of The Color Of A Lie, she aims to “unveil the historical underpinnings that continue to shape our society’s rules, regulations, and practices.” Her emotionally powerful and historically significant story shines a light on racial disparity and hidden truths and will engross and enlighten readers.