Finalist for the National Book Award
Finalist for the 2025 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award
An ALA 2025 Rise: A Feminist Book Project Top Ten Book
2025 NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Book Winner
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book of 2024
An SLJ Best Book of 2024
A Bank Street 2025 Best Children's Books of the Year Selection
A Children's Book Review Best Kids' Nonfiction Book of 2024
"Shanté adeptly addresses racism, implicit bias, gender, sexuality, sexual violence, and mental health, encouraging readers to care for themselves, think, research, and act. VERDICT Strongly recommended for all young adult collections."
—SLJ, starred review
"[A]n intoxicating and lyrical celebration of the complexities of being a young Black woman in America."
—National Book Foundation
"By weaving her personal experiences with reflections and observations, the author provides a rich tapestry of perspectives on Black girlhood. [...] A highly creative way of providing insightful social commentary."
—Kirkus Reviews
"The author’s story is split into the boxes that Black women do and don’t fit into, proving perseverance in a binary world and providing readers with the tools they need to understand [these] limitations[...]"
—Booklist
“A vivid witness to the trials and truths of being young, Black, and female. The smart sister, the generous friend every young woman wants, Angela Shanté shows how you can break away from constraints, become your own masterpiece, and find your own freedom.”
—David Groff, author of Live in Suspense
2024-05-04
An African American poet explores the special joys and challenges of Black girlhood.
Educator and writer Shanté draws on her life story to explore what it means to be a Black girl in contemporary society. From the beginning, she pays homage to wide-ranging experiences, some positive, some not, of women of all ages, while acknowledging her connections to them through her writing. She uses a variety of poetic forms, including free verse and haiku, to describe ways that Black girls are characterized from an early age. Others negatively judged Shanté’s mother’s status as a single parent, even as her mom sought supportive connections: “she wanted us to know / that we had community / a culture / a home / a safe space / to land. / In a hard / hard / world.” Her mother’s guidance was critical to Shanté’s ability to overcome limitations imposed both from within and outside the community. By weaving her personal experiences with reflections and observations, the author provides a rich tapestry of perspectives on Black girlhood. In addition to culturally specific episodes, the poems explore universal themes around family dynamics, coming of age, and personal acceptance. The author effectively uses the imagery of being boxed in (and stepping outside boxes) to link the poems and vignettes. Footnotes cleverly expand on the ideas contained in the main text. A comprehensive readers’ guide completes this unique literary package.
A highly creative way of providing insightful social commentary. (Poetry. 14-17)
