The Real Education of TJ Crowley
Coming of Age on the Redline
The Scriptbook and the audio drama are made to be used together.
Wichita, 1968, the summer after Dr. King was killed. A line runs through the city, and it runs one street from thirteen-year-old TJ Crowley's house. When the new Fair Housing law brings a Black doctor's family onto his block, everything TJ thought he knew about his neighbors, his family, and himself comes apart.
Available as a novel, a full-cast audio drama, and a word-for-word scriptbook for reading alongside the performance.
2025 Audie Award · Best Young Adult Audiobook
AudioFile Earphones Award
IPPY Audiobook of the Year
Three Ways In
Choose how you want to meet the story.
Read it — The Original Novel The full story start to finish, the way it was first written. For readers who want the book on its own terms. Go to the novel →
Listen to it — The Full-Cast Audio Drama Fifteen actors, sound design, and original gospel music by the ARISE Ensemble. Winner of the 2025 Audie Award. Educators have called it "a movie for the ears." Behind the audio drama →
Read and listen together — The Scriptbook Edition The complete script as performed, built to be followed while the audio plays. Made for classrooms, book clubs, and discussion groups. Go to the Scriptbook →
For Educators
TJ Crowley is taught in English, social studies, and humanities classrooms, and used in libraries, book clubs, and community listening programs.
Social Studies & History Standards alignment, historical background on redlining and the 1968 Fair Housing Act, and classroom materials. Teaching resources →
Catholic Schools & Parishes TJ Crowley is not Catholic. His story still speaks to Catholic educators, because it sits close to the heart of Catholic social teaching: human dignity, solidarity, and the formation of conscience under pressure. Catholic schools and parishes →
Bulk and classroom orders Volume pricing and educator discussion guides for institutional partners. Contact us →
Ages 13 and up, grades 7-12. Contains historically accurate racially offensive language and depictions of racial injustice. Recommended for guided or facilitated settings.
The Real Education of TJ Crowley: Coming of Age on the Redline, by Grant Overstake and May Wuthrich, who co-authored, produced, and directed the full-cast audio drama.
Grain Valley Publishing is an independent press in Wichita, Kansas. Through The Real Education Project, we support listening-centered education in schools, libraries, and community settings.
