Shine A Light On Me: A Story Of The Blues, Friendship and Memory

Four friends. One buried mystery. And a history their hometown almost forgot.

Charles, Irene, Grace, and Ravi are thirteen-year-olds trying to survive middle school in Sugar Land, Texas: detention, demanding parents, friendship drama, and one spectacularly disastrous band concert.

Then they stumble onto something far bigger than themselves.

A forgotten grave. A Civil War-era button. Old blues songs that seem to point toward the past. And beneath the neighborhoods, schools, and highways of modern Sugar Land lies the true history of the Sugar Land 95; African American prisoners forced to labor in Texas’s brutal convict-leasing system after the Civil War.

As the four friends follow the clues, the music becomes part of the mystery. Songs associated with legendary blues and folk musician Lead Belly lead them deeper into the history beneath their own community, and force them to ask who gets remembered, who gets forgotten, and what it means to belong to a place.

Shine a Light on Me is a story about friendship, music, memory, and the unexpected ways the past survives in the present. Funny in places, painful in others, it follows ordinary kids as they discover that history is not something locked inside a textbook.

Sometimes it is buried beneath your feet.

Sometimes it is carried in a song.

Readers who enjoyed the historical mystery of The Parker Inheritance, the humor and humanity of The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, or the way music carries memory through Echo will find something familiar here—but Shine a Light on Me tells a distinctly Sugar Land story, shaped by the young people growing up there today.

Inspired by the true history of the Sugar Land 95 and the music of Lead Belly, Shine a Light on Me was written collaboratively by five students from Sugar Land who began the project while they were in middle school. Their story brings together historical mystery, school life, blues music, Asian American family life, and the changing face of the American South.

It is a story about learning to hear the voices that came before us, and about discovering that you do not have to be born to a history to care enough to carry it forward.

Twenty percent of royalties from the book will be donated to the Friends of the Sugar Land 95 Memorial Fund, supporting efforts to preserve and honor the memory of the 95 individuals whose graves were discovered in Sugar Land.

For young readers, parents, teachers, and anyone who believes the stories we inherit still have something to teach us.

Amanda MoWriting Shine a Light on Me has been one of the most memorable experiences of my life so far. My journey began in 2024 when I joined Captain John's vocabulary class, and in 2025, I started working on this book as an eleven-year-old sixth grader. Now, as a seventh grader who is almost thirteen, it feels exciting to see our ideas and research come together into an actual book. I've always enjoyed reading, especially because it allows me to explore different perspectives. While researching the Sugar Land 95, I discovered stories about my own community that I had never heard before. Being part of a group of young authors who could help share this history has made the experience even more special to me.Outside of writing, artistic swimming is a huge part of my life. I love being in the water, learning new routines, and performing alongside my teammates. One of my favorite things about artistic swimming is how it combines music, movement, and creativity into one performance. There's something exciting about hearing the music start and knowing that every movement is part of a bigger routine. I also love the friendships I've made through the sport and all the memories we've created together, both in and out of the pool. When I'm not swimming, I enjoy reading, writing, and traveling. Visiting new places is one of my favorite things to do because there's always something different to see, experience, or discover.I'm incredibly grateful to my two wonderful parents, my teachers, and my friends for supporting me throughout this journey. Another special part of writing this book is getting to share the experience with my older sister, Joanna Mo, who is also one of the authors and is so annoying. Looking ahead, I dream of becoming a CEO someday. I love the idea of creating something of my own, making decisions, and turning big ideas into reality. Being part of Shine a Light on Me has shown me how a simple idea can grow into something that reaches beyond the people who first imagined it. I hope this book encourages others to discover the stories around them and understand why they deserve to be remembered. Joanna Mo When I first began working on Shine a Light on Me, I had just completed 7th grade at Sartartia Middle School. Now, as a 9th grader at Stephen F. Austin High School, I continue to find joy in reading, writing, and discovering the stories behind the world around me. To me, reading is a way to experience lives beyond my own, while creative writing allows me to explore new perspectives through imagination and storytelling. Researching the Sugar Land 95 alongside my fellow student authors has deepened my appreciation for the stories hidden within our communities and the importance of ensuring they are remembered and shared.Outside of writing, music is one of my greatest passions. I play piano and cello, but I especially love composing my own music. One of the most meaningful discoveries I made through this project was learning how musical traditions carried stories of hardship, hope, and resilience across generations. As a composer, this changed the way I think about music. I began to see it not only as a form of personal expression, but also as a way to preserve memories, connect people, and tell stories that might otherwise go unheard. This realization has inspired me to think more deeply about the meaning and purpose behind the music I create.I am incredibly grateful to my family, teachers, and friends for supporting me and encouraging me to pursue my interests. In my free time, I enjoy exploring nature, visiting national parks, stand-up paddleboarding, and kayaking, for I get most of my inspiration from spending time surrounded by nature. Looking ahead, I hope to pursue medicine while continuing to write and compose. Through Shine a Light on Me, I've come to appreciate that stories can live on in many forms, whether written on a page or carried in a melody. I hope to carry that understanding into the stories I write, the

Captain John is me, John Torgersen. I have five children, my youngest son is Oliver Torgersen, one of the authors.I am an actual sea captain, who now works ashore for a company that performs underwater services, mostly for the US Navy.I have never published anything prior to this.In the fall of 2020, after COVID hit, my wife asked me if I could teach a vocabulary class to our son and some of his friends, who were in third grade at the time because she was concerned they wouldn't be getting much English vocabulary, as most of them spoke other languages at home. The class is held online, and it grew as others heard about it. The class usually starts with a music video. We spend time on word origins, which often means learning some Latin.The class is still held to this day, on Sundays at 8 PM. In the summers, we stop learning vocabulary and we read and discuss great books. We started with a few simple writing assignments and then a group of students from the class took on the challenge of writing a book together. The summer we started this book, we were reading "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo, and it may have had some impact on the complexity of the kids story. I have never written a book, so I don't know what that's like. Working on a book with 5 authors and one editor is interesting. A lot of the inner turmoil that writers must go through becomes a discussion or an argument when there are 6 of you trying to decide on a plot point.My task was to organize the discussions, take notes, build the outline of the story from our discussions, and then hold them to the outline during editing.The story was divided up into sections. Each section was roughly three chapters. From the outline, the kids knew what to write. They would submit their work, and I would edit it, making corrections and point out issues they needed to address. Clearly the most difficult part was keeping them all aligned story wise. Their sections passed back and forth between us many times, until it worked. We started with 8 authors, 3 dropped out due to the work load, and others had to start from scratch and re write their sections. Some chapters were split into smaller pieces in the final edit.When we reached the point where I couldn't help them anymore, all of the parents kicked in money to hire a professional developmental editor to help complete the manuscript. Each of the authors then made the suggested edits re-writing 5 chapters each, chapters they didn't write.I then took the rewritten chapters and stitched the book back together. The result isn't perfect, but it is real.This wasn't just a writing exercise, it was a 20 month project that involved many members of the community sharing what they knew with the authors in order to help create something that didn't exist before: an easier entry point to Sugar Land's difficult past for middle school students. Encouraged by the legacy of Reginald Moore, the authors tried to give an identity and a voice to those from whom it had been taken. The goal was to change the narrative about the Sugar Land 95 from one of 95 unfortunate people who died, to one about 95 people who lived, loved and had families. We did this with fiction, while the Friends of the Sugar Land 95 are working to do this in reality.I have the utmost respect for the kids carrying on the work needed to create the book, as they continued the busy lives of Sugar Land middle schoolers.Its been a great deal of work, but also amazing to see it all come together. Its been wonderful watching each of the kids evolve both as writers and as people. That is the best part.Capt. John