About the Author

Ted M. Dunagan was born and grew up in rural southwestern Alabama. He served in the U.S. Army, attended Georgia State University, and retired from a career in business in 2003. He received the 2009 Georgia Author of the Year Award in Young Adult Fiction for his debut novel, A Yellow Watermelon. The book was also named to the inaugural list of "The 25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read" compiled by the Georgia Center for the Book, and selected as an Accelerated Reader Title. He followed his first success with a sequel, Secret of the Satilfa, which earned the 2011 Georgia Author of the Year Award, followed by his third in the series, Trouble on the Tombigbee, which won the 2012 Georgia Author of the Year Award, and the 2013 Yerby Award for Fiction. He lives in Monticello, Georgia, where he writes news, features, and a weekly column for The Monticello News.

Reviews

A Yellow Watermelon reminds me of To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn in that it is a great read with engaging, memorable characters and wonderful boyhood stories that also tell volumes about the small town South of the 1940s. Read it for fun, but soak up the history.--Billy Moore "author of Cracker's Mule"

[A Yellow Watermelon] has some nice characterization and local color--what folks eat, work songs in the field, ordering school clothes from the Sears and Roebuck catalog--but also plenty of action. I think there is more than enough plot action to satisfy a young reader.--Don Noble, Alabama Public Radio

[A Yellow Watermelon] is rich in history and told in beautiful prose. The engaging story draws reader in and reminding them of the terrible treatment of blacks in the South prior to the civil rights movement. The action and suspense of the story line will surely hook even the most reluctant reader.-- "The Crimson Review"

If you have a young adult in your house who likes to read, or one who doesn't like to read but who you think might if it is the right book, here is what you are looking for. Ted Dunagan. A Yellow Watermelon. It is a dandy.--Dr. Harvey Jackson III "The Anniston Star"

In A Yellow Watermelon, Ted refuses to be an observer of life in rural Alabama of 1949. He's in the middle of the action, looking and listening and thinking. He learns secrets and stirs up dangers that force him to take a courageous stand against long established customs that are unfair and dishonest. What can an 'almost twelve-year-old' do to make a difference? With the help of forbidden friends, Ted's inventive solutions will surprise the reader and keep the pages turning to the tasty end of the story.--Aileen Kilgore Henderson "author of Hard Times for Jake Smith"

In A Yellow Watermelon, Ted Dunagan convincingly captures the South of the late 1940s. In a moving story he shows through the experience of a boy how friendship can triumph over prejudice. Good reading!--Faye Gibbons "author of Night in the Barn"

It's a fine, well-told tale of friendship between two smart, likable boys--one white, one black. In a scene akin to Deborah Wiles's Freedom Summer (2001), anticipating the civil rights movement, Ted tells Poudlum, 'And someday you gonna be able to walk in that drug store, sit down and have yourself some ice cream. You know what else, one day we'll be able to go to school together, too.' A memorable, generous-hearted tale.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Readers of A Yellow Watermelon will be steeped in the rich and contradictory world that was the South of the 1940s. Twelve-year-old Ted Dillon, who has never seen more of the world than the scant few miles around his home ... also carries the fear that his father will soon lose his job at the mill, along with the growing realization that for the black members of his community there is little hope and no equality. With deft and precise language Ted Dunagan tells a story that is both beautifully wrought and unsparing in its portrayal of all that was good and bad in Dixie.--Adrian Fogelin "author of Crossing Jordan"

A Yellow Watermelon is reminiscent of some of the best Southern books. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain immediately comes to mind, as does Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, both of which are drenched in the segregationist attitudes of the region.-- "Florence Times Daily"