Winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature,
the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award!
Fans of
Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for
this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an
award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her
story with blazing words and powerful truth.
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. So
when 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.
But she still can't stop thinking about performing her poems.
Because in the face
of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be
silent.