RADIANT

In 1963 Pennsylvania, a Black girl negotiates the impact of race on her journey to thrive.

For precocious fifth grader Cooper Dale, life is good. Mostly. She has a loving family and lots of hobbies, but she also has a secret: Sometimes, she wishes she were white. Not that she’s ashamed to be Black—“At church / I’m proud to be brown … / … I breathe, breathe, breathe in / the church feeling. / I store it inside me / and carry it / to school.” But if she wasn’t the only Black student in her class, maybe her racist bully would leave her alone and she could really shine, like her mama says she should. As she navigates life’s ups and downs—the assassination of JFK, the rise of Beatlemania, her conflicted feelings about her mother’s being a cleaner—Cooper reflects on the impact of skin color in the world around her and wonders how she can let meanness and unfairness roll off her back. The era’s more pernicious racist aspects are handled obliquely. This verse novel examines complex themes of identity, forgiveness, self-love, and self-actualization through writing that’s accessible to young readers. Nelson intentionally and deftly uses details to situate the novel with history, and she’s crafted an endearing, three-dimensional protagonist in Cooper, whose voice and authentic struggle to make sense of her experiences will resonate in a work that presents fertile ground for discussion.

A complex yet accessible exploration of self-actualization, presented in full color.