I'm very excited to be part of the Federation of Children's Book Groups Children's Book Award blog tour. I will be highlighting the amazing On The Come Up by Angie Thomas! Use the hashtag #FCBGCBA2020 on social media to follow the tour and find out about these amazing books! Bri Jackson has a plan. That plan is to become a rapper, someone who shines a light on the situation she and her family endures on a daily basis in Garden Heights. Her mother, Jay, is a recovering addict, someone Bri doesn't fully trust. Her brother Jay works at a pizza shop, he's smart, headstrong and stays out of trouble. If only Bri could follow his lead. She sells candy, a banned item in her school, to those who are craving sugar. When she gets caught, the authorities grossly overreact by throwing her to the ground and pinning her there. It's a moment that will stick with Bri throughout the novel, a lightning bolt that sets many different events into action. Rumours start to spread, primarily that it wasn't candy in her bag, that it was drugs. Bri has a choice, does she ignore this nonsense and try to carry on, or does she act the way society expects her to act, to lash out, to be angry on both the inside and outside. Her status as a rapper gains huge credibility when she destroys a boy, the son of Supreme, her late father's manager, in a rap battle. When Bri decides to make another song, one that makes her out to be someone she isn't, her community takes notice. This puts Bri, her aunt Pooh and her friends in a dangerous position. As the pressure mounts and the lights and the gas gets cut in her home and she suspects her mother of using again, Bri has to make some really tough choices, choices no teenager should make, On the Come Up is a raw, devastating look at what it's like to claw at a dream that everyone tells you is just that, a dream. Bri is tough, quick to fly off the handle yet sensitive, someone who loves video games and comic books and hanging out with her friends. Thomas has once again developed a fully formed character that screws up just like every teen, except for Bri the consequences are much heavier compared to most. It's an honest look at stereotypes, racism, white privilege and how we project our fears and expectations on African American youth. I think On The Come Up should be required reading, loved it.
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