In Savannah, Georgia, in 1969, segregation was coming to an end. Butternut chocolate bars was the number one candy. The Ford Falcon was a family car. Neighbors were really neighbors. Children stayed in a child's place. School bullies took the weaker kids' lunch money and beat them up, but often, the bully and the bullied became best friends. God was the focal point of everything in 1969.

O Happy Day! follows its hero, Zeric Washington, a nine-year-old African American. Zeric is not the traditional hero. He's not strong and unusually brave. He's not the stud of all boys. He's often called "sissy." He's often picked on. He's often threatened because he is different. God has smiled on him though. Through his unexpected anointing, he changes the heart of a bully. He restores his parents' disintegrating marriage. He brings a playboy producer closer to God. Through his lovely singing voice, which was the reason he was picked on and bullied, he is taken to unforeseen adventures and lives change along the way.

First-time love, brotherly love, fear of the unknown, the pain a child feels when a parent is caught cheating, the tragic demise of a onetime-enemy-turned great friend-all and much more are examined through the eyes of a nine-year-old innocent chosen-by-God in O Happy Day!

--Joee Davis

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