Sheila Moses Shares Her Book, The Baptism
On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, November 21, at 9:30 PM

When you turn twelve in Occoneechee Neck in Jackson, North Carolina, everything changes. You get to do stuff you couldn't do when you were eleven. And it means it's time to get baptized.

In Sheila P. Moses’s new book The Baptism, twin brothers Leon and Luke Curry turned twelve last month. Ma has given them one week in which to do right -- to cleanse themselves of their sinning ways and get themselves ready for the baptism. Next Sunday they will go down to the "mornin' bench" at church, sit in front of Reverend Webb, and be saved. It will be a glorious day.

But that's only if Twin Leon and Twin Luke can keep themselves out of trouble. Which is easier said than done when you've lost your daddy and have a new stepfather; when you have a bullying big brother who plays tricks on you; and when it's summertime and all you want to do is go fishing instead of working in the fields.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, November 21, at 9:30 PM, Moses shares how Twin Leon and Twin Luke stick together to face the odds as only twelve-year-old boys can do—managing to save themselves while also unexpectedly saving their entire family in a week's time—in this moving, funny, and poignant novel.

Poet, author, playwright and producer Shelia P. Moses was raised the ninth of 10 children on Rehobeth Road in Rich Square, North Carolina, where the award-winning The Legend of Buddy Bush (2004) is set. Her newest book, The Return of Buddy Bush (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006), continues the story. She is a Coretta Scott King Honor winner and National Book Award finalist, and her books have been nominees to the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults list. Ms. Moses resides in Atlanta.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Sheila P. Moses on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, November 21, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, November 23, at 5 PM.

During the 26-week season of North Carolina Bookwatch, guests also include: Frances Mayes (A Year in the World), Rob Christensen (The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics), Robert Morgan (Boone), Eleanora Tate (Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance), Eric Wilson (Against Happiness), Wayne Caldwell (Cataloochee), Theda Perdue (The Cherokee Nation and The Trail of Tears), Bernie Harberts (Too Proud to Ride a Cow), Therese Fowler (Souvenir), Joe Glatthaar (General Lee’s Army), Nortin Hadler (Worried Sick), Anna Hayes (Without Precedent), Jean Anderson (A Love Affair with Southern Cooking), J.D. Rhoades (Breaking Cover), Nancy Peacock (A Broom of One’s Own), Louise Hawes (Black Pearls), Tony Earley (The Blue Star), Anna Rubino (Queen of the Oil Club) and Cindy H. Ramsey (Boys of the Battleship North Carolina).

For additional information about series guests and airdates, plus links to the Bookwatch blog and online book club, please visit: www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Funding for North Carolina Bookwatch is provided by UNC-TV members and by Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh’s independent, full service bookstore, bringing readers and writers together since 1984.

North Carolina Bookwatch is part of UNC-TV’s ongoing commitment to produce programs for and about North Carolina. UNC-TV is the statewide 11-station broadcast network of the University of North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

For more information about North Carolina Bookwatch and UNC-TV’s other original productions, please visit our website at www.unctv.org.