Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

I heard about this book from an NPR interview with Ibram Kendi about the books that he would have his own children and other people's children read in order to raise anti-racist humans, so wrapped this into my post-George Floyd committment to knowing more and being better. A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion, her brother's sexual orientation, and her own relationship to the world. Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—-especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. Her mother would quash her passion, but a teacher recognizes her talent and she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club. She doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less find the courage to speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. In the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent, and her fierceness is something to behold.