Hooray for Hollywood

Since I'm going to California in a few days and hope to spend a bit of time in Hollywood, at least stop at Grauman's Chinese Theater I was searching for books set in California and came across The Loud Silence of Francine Green on cd.  
A truly serendipitous find!
TLSFG takes place just outside of Hollywood from 1949-1950.  This was a time of great change in the US, well and in the world.  WW2 was over and Soviet Russia and the US were no longer friends, infact, they were rivals.  Both countries had the bomb and the Second Red Scare was starting in the United States. 
Francine Green is an eighth grader at All Saints School where Sister Basil the Great rules as the mighty tough principal.  Francine is a regular kinda girl, "going along to get along", not questioning much, just living her life.  She's a very likable character.  Along comes Sophie Bowman who was kicked out of public school for promoting free speech by painting words on the gym floor.  Sophie's dad is a writer for the movies and encourages Sophie to be the opposite of a "go along to get along" girl.  She is outspoken and, as a result, frequently getting into trouble.  I think that Cushman does an excellent job showing the importance of balance.  This was an excellent look into the time period and a great coming of age story as well.  Different and interesting and very good!