★ “Delivers a beautifully structured narrative that highlights the often unintentional but nevertheless cruel assumptions people of all ages make about a person based on their skin color. This gem is highly recommended for libraries looking to expand their verse novel collections.”—School Library Journal (SLJ), starred review
The boy has just started a new school. He stands in the school yard, feeling like he's floating in space, not knowing if he belongs.
When class starts, the teacher makes a big deal of pronouncing his name, syllable by syllable, and everyone laughs. His parents are from Haiti, though he was born in Montreal, so everyone in his mostly white class expects him to have an accent or to be from somewhere else. Even outside of school, he's seen as different. The police stop him because he looks like a suspect. The only similarity? His skin color.
The boy wonders if being Black is just about bearing the weight of all this difference. But when a kid hurls a racist taunt at him and he gets into a fight, the boy finally confides in his mom what he's been going through. She understands and offers advice: She wants him to stand up for himself—just in the right way. Her words help him realize that Blackness is nothing to be ashamed of...it's his greatest strength.
“This novel will resonate with readers looking for punchy pages that feel ripped from real conversations, and the concrete poetry element will excite readers who regularly explore the intricacies of novels in verse. Hand to fans of Jason Reynolds and Kwame Alexander but who prefer shorter texts.”