Author Virginia Kroll wrote Especially Heroes based on a series of incidents, all true, that had an enormous impact on her when she was a child and that continues to affect her to this day. In the story, a young girl learns firsthand that ideals must be lived out, not just talked about, and that living out ideals sometimes involves facing danger. Set in the early 1960s, Especially Heroes gives an authentic glimpse of some of the challenges of race relations during that era of the civil rights movement. Virginia Kroll's powerful childhood memories are brought to life by illustrator Tim Ladwig's unique perspective on an ordinary neighborhood of that time and the heroism of everyday people who responded with courage and caring when confronted with acts of hatred.