Tell It True

by Tim Lockette

An unlikely high school newspaper editor fights to cover a local murder case and learns what is most important in friendship, in journalism, and in life.

Lisa Rives had higher expectations for sophomore year. Her beauty queen mom wonders why she can't be more like other 15-year-old girls in their small Alabama town. Lisa's Dad, well, she suspects he's having an affair with a colleague at his top-secret job. Her friend Preethy seems to be drifting away, and Lisa spends her schooldays dodging creepy boys and waiting to graduate. Then she finds herself in charge of her high school newspaper, which is the last thing she wanted--school newspapers are for popular kids and club-joiners, not outcasts like her, and besides, the stories are never about anything you actually want to know. But after accidentally tipping the scales in the school election, then deciding to cover a real story--the upcoming execution of a local man charged with murder--and becoming a surprise news story herself, Lisa learns some hard lessons about friendship and truth-telling. As Lisa navigates the dilemmas, challenges, and unintended consequences of journalism, she finds her life--and her convictions--changing in ways she couldn't have imagined. Tell It True is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes devastating, always relatable coming-of-age story about the importance of speaking the truth in a world of denial and fake news.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Realistic Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 21, 2021

Reviews

[Ms. B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lisa, a girl who likes to asks a lot of questions decides to report on an upcoming execution for her school's newspaper. What's the cost of reporting a story? Is she willing to lose it all to stay true to herself and the ethics of journalism?
Give this to your readers who are ready for a book that makes them pause and think.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn on my thoughts on this book... There were several descriptions of how the main character felt about her appearance, and how she didn't want to be sexually harassed by her peers, who were (obviously) crude in their language. There was a bit of strong language that I wouldn't be comfortable letting my students read. Many of the conversations between characters either felt dry and a bit cleaner cut than realistic conversations would be. It was somewhat realistic, but for the most part felt like a stage where the characters were expected to act.
However, the second half of the book dove much deeper than I was expecting regarding the death penalty, the importance of honesty in journalism, and the importance of standing up for speaking the truth. It was a consistent progression into deeper territory, yet it was still surprising how heavy the book became.

[Jenny Ashby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took a much more serious turn than I was expecting at the outset. From the description, I was expecting a story about a misfit in a southern town who finds her people at the school newspaper. And that's kinda what happened if you view the story through a far away lens. But at some point I realized that we were going down a serious path to journalistic ethics, growing beyond the boundaries of your friendships, and the ethics of the death penalty. Once I came to grips with the actual story being presented, I was really moved by both the story and the writing which has some gorgeous bits in it. This is a book that leaves you with things to think about after you're done and is a true love letter to print journalism. My only issue with it is Lisa's relationship with her mother which seems to resolve more quickly than I was led to believe from the description of her at the beginning of the book.

[Megan Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this book to read because of its AMAZING COVER ART! Thank you to my local library for always feeding my need, my need to read.

Rory Gilmore meets Veronica Mars….
(YES, I said it, Tell it True, right?)

It gives me all the vibes of these two characters put together. Strong female leads with strong personalities that stomps out high school antics while pulling no punches.

Tell it True conquers the insider look of what it means to speak freely, no matter where it leads you. It’s extremely BOLD which challenged me to think what it means to have different perspective on an ever changing world.

Quick and Short Read which is always enticing.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly, I struggled with this book. However, I'm glad I stuck with it and read it all. The story line initially grabbed my attention, and I was eager to jump in. I still haven't been able to pinpoint why I struggled through this one. I do think it has value, and especially for those students who are interested in journalism. The struggle to tell the truth, no matter what, is definitely an issue that we deal with in reporting.

[Lys · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book delves into interesting topics around journalism, ethics, and the death penalty, but I found the voice to be unauthentic. The characters' motivations are often muddled and no one seems to talk and act the way you'd expect teenagers, teachers, or parents to talk and act.

[Mike Nemeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa Rives is 15, has just one friend and doesn't care much for high school. That's the start of Tim Lockette's "Tell It True." Any other young adult novel would feature on the next line of the jacket summary would set up an encounter with a love interest or establish a conflict of some sort. Lockette doesn't do that. His protagonist joins a school paper and discovers an addiction she never knew she harbored. Journalism. Damn. I had to read it. Plus it was short, and at the end of the school year when I'm beset with students clamoring for my attention, short is good. But I got more out of Lisa's experiences than I had imagined. Lockette appears to be about my age, and his newspaper references could have been my own. Lisa stumbles upon a death penalty case involving people in her own community, one that no longer has its own newspaper. (For those under a rock the past several decades, print journalism is all but dead.) She joins the newspaper almost by accident. Her best friend Preethy pushes her into a vacated editor job. Lisa's a big consumer of major metro stories. She's well read, but not on a writing track. Then she interviews a relative of a victim who was killed by the man on death row. Something clicks. Lockette somehow weaves the love of journalism with the difficulties of a teenager taking on an oversized role. His dialogue between Lisa and her predecessor at the newspaper who quit to run for class president is fantastic. He doesn't waste any words, and his ability to break from journo mode to write fiction impressed me. Especially since I have trouble with that. His detail, from her perspective, of covering a death row story didn't give me actual goosebumps but the mental equivalent. He recounts faint-yet-screaming voices from other prisoners as a crew of media takes a bus from one part of a bunker-like prison to another. I imagined the things I wrote in my notebook in other stories, the ones that stick out in my memory. The 80 mph wind that tore across the Arctic Ocean at 30 degrees below zero when I got out of a Suburban and rendered my pushed black and white film into broken plastic particles. I wasn't prepared. Then I recovered a bit and slipped into a heated a tent over a drilling rig in which these massive flame-thrower space heaters warmed the temperature to 80 degrees. I reloaded and got exactly five images and an interview with a diminutive bare-chested roughneck covered in mud. A perfect start to an otherworldly story about a test well eight miles off the coast of Alaska. Or the time, which I never wrote about, toasting with the mayor of Magadan in the Russian far east soon after the fall of the wall. He and I downed 15 shots to the roaring approval of his countrymen. I didn't black out, but if it weren't for my photographer I'd have slept in the street. The life of a newspaper reporter. Damn fun. Thanks for the memories Tim. And for the theme of "Tell It True." It resonates. I'm the advisor for an online school paper as part of my role as librarian at a rural high school. A couple of my students have actually learned to write properly. One got on at UC Berkeley's paper. The business isn't dead. Yet.

[Sarah Krajewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lisa Woodley Rivas is a sophomore in a small Alabama high school who ends up becoming the editor of her school’s newspaper. And why not? Lisa is losing the only friendship she has with her childhood friend, her mother just wants her to be a younger version of herself who’s obsessed with clothes and her popularity, and her father is away most of the week “working with his assistant.” So Lisa dives right in, interviewing both candidates for the upcoming school election. When she realizes she influenced the outcome, Lisa begins to see the power her words have. She even decides to try to witness a local execution of a man on death row for murder. But Lisa is only 15, and she’s going up against published journalists and lawyers. By the end, Lisa ends up learning a lot more than she ever could have imagined.

There’s a lot I liked about this book. Lisa’s personality reminds me a lot of my own daughter’s, but some of the other characters were either underdeveloped or unbelievable. Even Lisa was a bit unbelievable at times, for she new so much about journalism and the law, which just seemed to be the author’s own personality coming in the 1st person narration. I read this book to see if I could use it for my Journalism class, and I think I can, just not the whole thing.

[Meegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a few hours since I finished reading this novel, and I'm still unsure of what to make of it. Overall, it was a good story with deep elements that made you think. The main character, Lisa was forced to undergo challenges as a result of the main conflict, resulting in her growing in emotional maturity...but I feel like we were robbed of seeing the results of that growth. \\

Transitioning into why I gave this novel 3 stars, I feel like there wasn't enough connection between the various deep elements that Lockette invited us to ponder. Lisa would mention something super deep and then Blanderson (her teacher) would mention a separate deep thought and then we would jump back into one of Lisa's personal conflicts. There wasn't enough showing or telling, and although telling is considered a sin among writers, it would have been forgiven because the absence of understanding the connection among the deep thoughts is an even greater sin.

Despite the weaknesses of the story and the themes, I enjoyed Lockette's writing. The prose was easy to digest and he did a great job of describing scenes without bogging them down with details. I'm interested in reading Lockette's other books, despite my fear that they will have similar issues as this one.

[Brax · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a fairly enjoyable afternoon read, if you're not looking for a lot of story.

The book centers around Lisa Rives, a high school student who gets pushed into being the editor of her school newspaper and decides that it is her duty to document the things in her community even if they're not relevant to the school. Quite noble, and that energy is the sole thing carrying this book.

I was very disappointed that it didn't explore more of the themes it introduced, such as the divisiveness of politics and how it has seeped into all of our lives. I was even more disappointed by the clipped ending that, although it did resolve most plot points, left the biggest one to the reader's interpretation. I really, really enjoyed the writing and characters in this book. I just wish that it had a little more... well, book.

[Grace~The-Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not going to lie. This book was hard to finish. It’s only about 200 pages but the first 150 I had to drag myself to get through. I do like the realism of this story. Even though the Lisa’s main goal was accomplished she lost a lot of things on the way. Friends and her high school reputation. The ending was interesting but I felt the last half of the book was a little rushed. Lisa’s terrible relationship with her mom was resolved rather quickly. And the whole legal issue with her paper was kind of just ignored in the ending. Overall this book has a good message about feminism and taking charge, not giving up. I liked that

[Sylvie Shapiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

while i think that the main plot of the execution and the newspaper was really interesting, i didnt like how the story with preethy was written. preethy and her relationship with lisa was not well developed, which made the scene where they stop being friends very un-impactful. in general i just think that if the book was longer and had more focus on lisas social life it would make the overall message more powerful. i really liked the ending and how anticlimactic it was (idrk how to describe it). it de-glamorized lisas interest in the execution and made her realize what exactly she had been fighting for. overall a good quick read

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

The characters felt flat and unauthentic. Lisa definitely didn't talk or act like a teenager and her teacher said things a teacher would not say either. Not to mention, Lisa seems to have no motivation she actually states something along the lines of "I don't have an opinion on the death penalty", she was also never interested in journalism until forced to be the editor and yet the whole story was about a death penalty case she was reporting on. She had no connection to the case and no real reason to report on it other than that she saw other school papers reporting on 'big' things.

[Leah Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Right off the bat, I love all the literary references. And the snarky, subtle, tongue-in-cheek tone is adorable. Lisa is so sassy! I was taken aback but loved how alive that made her. The story started to lose me a little bit when the truth about her mom came out... didn't see to align with her character, but it was a minor point. I didn't particularly care for the ending; I would have appreciated a bit more resolution, since there was a lot that wasn't addressed. But it was a nice, quick read, and it made me laugh.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. I had originally thought I would give this as a gift to some middle school newspaper club kids, but after reading it realized it is probably best for an older teen audience. I really liked the focus on the newspaper stuff and the school stuff, but I found the Mom/Dad stuff a bit much, although I think it is certainly possible. This would be a great book to read with HS age teens and discuss.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The focus on ethics, journalism, and the death penalty is great but gets tangled in a story that doesn’t feel complete or full. Many important aspects, like a whole lawsuit important to the story, is missed. We also jump to new developments without seeing how we got there. Decent but almost unremarkable.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure if it is YA. High school student in Alabama, bit of a loner, eventually becomes editor of HS newspaper and attempts to qualify as the local paper allowed to witness the execution of a man.
Slower to start but worth sticking with - quick one

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa possesses the insatiable curiosity that comes from journalists and scientists. When her best friend railroads her into the Editor of the school newspaper, Lisa begins asking the hard questions not only of herself, her school, her family, but also about what it means to be a story.

[Claire Cunningham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't particularly bothered by the first half of the book - I only kept reading as it's the book club choice. The second half is much better. Deals with honesty in journalism & the death penalty in a way to make you think. Shame it's let down by the first part of the book.

[Michéla Abert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly kinda unsatisfying

[Jennifer Abella · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Fictional journalism that didn't drive me up the wall, with a pretty tense, unflinching climax.

[Lizanne Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

YA. I’ll recommend to students interested in journalism.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good YA book about a 15 year old girl who joins the high school newspaper and decides to cover an execution in a nearby Alabama prison.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Speak the truth.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book that makes you stop and think about weather one really wants the truth when they ask for it.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Piper Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

bad.
terrible actually.

[Ana Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This kind of book is the reason why I took journalism in the first place… to report the truth and nothing else. 🩶🩶🩶

[Delia Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was short but so sweet and had me crying by the end. The way she rewrote the story for Rhee Ann and Jennifer was beautiful.

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars