Wiles published a picture book, "Freedom Summer" (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum), in 2001. The book is based on her memories of her growing up summers in Mississippi and the 1964 passage of the Civil Rights Act. Two boys, best friends, want to swim at the town pool together the day it opens to "everybody under the sun, no matter what color," but find out that they can't, as the pool has been filled in "with hot, spongy tar." The decision they make after this event is one that cements their friendship. "Freedom Summer" won the Simon Wiesenthal Once Upon A World Award, the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer award for Wiles and New Illustrator award for Jerome Lagarrigue, as well as the Coretta Scott King/Steptoe award for Lagarrigue.