Angela Shanté

"A young girl worries about entering the third grade because she's put into the noisy classroom, but she learns that school can be both fun and educational in nontraditional classes"--

"Set in New York City in the '90s, Angela Shanté's poems and stories paint a mosaic of childhood that is shaped by the past and reverberates into the present. As Shanté navigates the city through memory, this timeless book illuminates the places where Black girls are nurtured or boxed in, through stories and poems about expectations, exploitation, love, loss, and self-realization. Her poems center on pivotal moments of Black childhood, using footnotes...

"The years from 1955 to 1965 are at the heart of the civil rights movement. Resistance was often met with violence against Black Americans fighting to end discrimination and segregation. Yet the courage of those yearning for equal opportunities under the law continued to persevere. The year 1963 was memorable for both the violence against Black Americans and the words and actions it inspired. In June, two Black students were blocked from registering...