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OLDER FICTION
Arnold, Marie

I Rise

320 pp. | HarperCollins/Versify | August, 2022 | Trade ISBN 978-0-358-44904-1 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-358-44895-2 $9.99
(2) YA Everyone in Harlem is asking: how much? How much longer do they have to wait for change? How much are their lives worth? As the daughter of a civil rights leader, Ayomide Bosia has spent her whole life fighting racial injustice. With her fifteenth birthday approaching, Ayo just longs to be a normal teenager and wonders how much more of herself she has to give. Then her mother is shot by police at a rally. While Mom lies in a coma, Ayo must figure out what's important to her and what role she wants to play. Arnold (The Year I Flew Away, rev. 7/21) provides a window into the experience of a (fictional) contemporary civil rights activist's family member, showing the sacrifices that both parents and children make. Teen readers will relate to the challenges of trying to live up to adults' expectations while being true to their own interests. This novel should appeal to readers who enjoyed Thomas's The Hate U Give (rev. 3/17), Stone's Dear Martin (rev. 11/17), and Watson's Love Is a Revolution (rev. 3/21). References to famous Harlem figures such as James Baldwin, Countee Cullen, Arthur Mitchell, and Zora Neale Hurston allow for deeper discussions of the history of Harlem as a place for Black intellectual thought and art.
Reviewer: Nicholl Denice Montgomery | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

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