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Book Review: ‘Nic Blake and the Remarkables’ by Angie Thomas

*Given an advanced reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas is an imaginative, well-developed middle-grade novel from the famous young adult author who gave us The Hate U Give.

Nichole Blake, who goes by Nic, is turning 12 years old, and for her birthday, she is looking forward to being trained by her dad on how to use the Gift as a real Manifestor. The Gift is a supernatural ability, which Nic’s dad has and therefore Nic has inherited. They are known as Remarkables. The human beings without the Gift are called Unremarkables. Though Nic wants a dragon badly, her dad gives her the safer option of a hellhound for her birthday. The hellhound, who is named Cocoa, has horns and is the size of a tiger. When Nic’s best friend JP comes over, he only sees a regular dog as an Unremarkable. Well, Nic has a feeling that JP may have seen more of Cocoa as a hellhound, but she lets that feeling go.

Since Nic and her dad have moved around the U.S. a lot, Nic feels settled in Jackson, Mississippi. It’s a city built on an inactive volcano, but they made a home with finding Remarkable friends at Ms. Lena’s juke joint where Rougarous, Vampires, Giants, and Fairies frequent. Bags with mojos, which control the elements with good intentions, and jujus, which control the elements with bad intentions, are sold and bought there. The juke joint is a safe haven for their community. Her dad works as a handyman, who collects haints, demons, ghouls, and other Remarkable creatures that are destroying Unremarkables’ homes without their knowledge. He sells these creatures to Ms. Lena to find a place for the evil spirits.

In Jackson, homeschooled Nic also has JP, the only other Black kid on the block, as they obsess over middle-grade author TJ Retro’s fantasy series. It reminds Nic of Remarkables, except the characters in the series use Magic, which is considered a corrupt form of the Gift. When they go to a book signing to meet TJ Retro, they learn that he is an old friend of Nic’s dad. Since her dad refuses to teach her how to fully use her Gift, Nic receives a piece of Giftech, or Gift-infused technology, from her favorite author that ignites an unintentional adventure between the Unremarkable world and the Remarkable world. On this adventure, she pulls in JP and Cocoa to help her discover the truth about her family and find the Msaidizi, one of the most powerful tools in the universe, in order to save her dad who is accused of stealing it and kidnapping her.

Black folklore is interwoven into the storyline to heighten the differences between Remarkables and Unremarkables and give the tale a touch of familiarity. In the story, John Henry is the half-Giant who won a rock-drilling contest while building a railroad with a sledgehammer, which was the Msaidizi. High John the Conqueror, the shapeshifter who fell in love with the Devil’s daughter in one story, used the Msaidizi through a plow and an ax to plant and reap acres of corn, one of the impossible tasks given to him by the Devil. Annie Christmas is the half-Giant who used the Msaidizi as a pole for her keelboat to save hundreds of people. All figures are considered to be fictional but believed to be based on real people who overworked themselves to death by proving their superior strength. But in this novel, they all were Remarkables who knew how to use the Msaidizi.

Along with folklore, racial elements are also connected to the Gift. The Blakes’ Gift is believed to have originated in Africa and passed down by their ancestors. Through the pain and trauma amid the trans-Atlantic slave trade, it is believed many people who had the Gift forgot their power and were unable to pass it down. During their adventure, Nic and her friends are kidnapped by a wizard who brings them to the Grand Wizard, as in the KKK, though the terrorist organization is not mentioned. Wizards are considered dangerous because they know about the Gift and use a wand to conjure up what they think is close to the Gift. The wizards claim to not be associated with the KKK, but they still want to capture Nic and her friends for their Manifestor connections.

Overall, the book is fast-paced with fantasy that seems more authentic to the Southern landscape with the mentions of haints and folkloric legends. A key to the author’s success in previous novels is getting into a young character’s mind and speaking in their voice, and this novel gives us another relatable character finding her true identity amid tough circumstances. This book review is a dose of the unputdownable story to avoid spoilers, but, of course, the ending opens to the potential second book in the series.

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The Judy Blume Book That Changed Everything

<![CDATA[SHE LIT: The Judy Blume Book That Changed Everything ♾️]]> SHE LIT: The Judy Blume Book That Changed Everything ♾️
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Banned coming-of-age novel that boosted middle grade genre finally gets its flowers


I finished Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret during a daylong doctor’s appointment when I was nine years old. The famous Judy Blume story was already over 25 years old when I devoured it in less than 24 hours. I was wearing a training bra and the loom of the period was hanging over my head since some of my fourth-grade friends already had theirs. I laughed at the characters kissing their pillows to practice kissing boys because I wasn’t there yet. I talked to God a lot growing up in an interfaith household like the main character Margaret.


With Margaret and her friends worrying about kissing boys, buying bras, and getting periods, the 1970 book has enjoyed a revival with a new film in theaters amid the latest banned books movement. Describing feelings many kids feel that many parents pretend are not there turned Judy into a best-selling author with Margaret revolutionizing the middle grade genre.


Judy Blume Forever, a new documentary on Amazon Prime Video about the author’s career, couples with the cinematic release of Margaret and the news of other forthcoming book-to-film adaptations like one for Forever…, the 1975 book that ushered in the young adult genre. In the documentary, Judy says the character of Margaret helped her dive deep to tell the story of a true American girl who is talking to God about the changes within her body and within her life.


The book was No. 60 on the list of most challenged books in the 1990s, according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. This was a result of the rise of book bans inside public and school libraries under the Reagan administration for most of the 1980s. The frequent mention of menstruation made the book a target.


Florida, for example, is currently moving a bill—coined the “Don’t Say Period” bill by some opponents—that restricts reproductive education at schools. Girls on average start their periods between ages 10 to 16, according to the National Institutes of Health. They need access to Margaret to feel less alone in their experiences, especially if they won’t be taught about what’s happening within their bodies.


What we’re seeing now resembles the peak of book bans from 40 years ago. News of these bans have been relatively quiet until the past two years where the volume is getting louder by the day.


The film version of Margaret grossed $6.8 million in its opening weekend, below expectations with mostly women buying tickets compared to girls, according to Deadline. So, maybe the story mostly resonates with the girls of previous decades, but it’s a win for a long-censored book getting attention from Hollywood.


Because of Margaret and her subsequent books, Judy became used to her work being challenged. But it seems we see her more publicly as she fights back against the growing lists of books being challenged due to authors following in her footsteps of writing authentic fiction for kids. The kids who grew up reading her books are now writing their own, except the controversial issues remain the same.


The film should have a DVD release, but will the DVD be banned from public and school libraries like the book? To get around the library or even the bookstore, the book could be bought online or the film could be found on a streaming service, but will the kids who are wondering about their worlds find a story like Margaret? That’s the constant concern in this moment.

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What we’re highlighting


Illinois governor set to sign bill to deter book banning

Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, says he plans to sign the state’s House Bill 2789, which threatens to defund public and school libraries if they remove books on shelves based on consumer complaints. Illinois will be the first state to enact such a law whereas other local and state governing bodies are exploring the opposite direction: defunding libraries that fail to remove books that consumers requested be removed.


Miami nonprofit plans to provide banned books to Floridians

Black historian Marvin Dunn and his nonprofit, the Miami Center for Racial Justice, will launch a program to give families banned books in order for them to learn about Black history, according to Miami New Times. The professor emeritus at Florida International University was inspired to create such a program after the viral news that a history textbook removed the mention of Rosa Parks being Black to avoid violating Florida’s Stop WOKE Act.


Here are the May celebrity book club picks

Audacious Book Club and Read With Jenna are reading Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Belletrist Book Club is reading I Could Live Here Forever by Hanna Halperin

GMA Book Club is reading The Nigerwife by Vanessa Walters

Lilly’s Library is reading Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah

Noname Book Club is reading All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou

Oprah’s Book Club is reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Reese’s Book Club is reading Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul


Also what’s lit…

  • Zaila Avant-garde, the first Black student to win the national spelling bee and basketball record holder, has a new advice book for teens out this week.

  • Ntozake Shange’s unpublished works will be released in the fall in a new book edited by Imani Perry.

  • Christine Platt of The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living With Less teased a forthcoming novel about two neighbors exploring racial equity in suburbia.

What we’re reviewing

‘Joy Luck Club’ Author Amy Tan Shares How Her Work Became an ‘Unintended Memoir’


For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Netflix debuted a two-hour documentary about Chinese American best-selling author Amy Tan that focused on how her books became reflections of her life and her mother’s life.


After seeing immediate success with her debut novel The Joy Luck Club in 1989, Amy started a writing career that followed the story’s legacy of featuring two generations of American-born daughters and Chinese-born mothers.


The documentary follows Amy’s childhood where she loses her older brother and father both within six months of their back-to-back brain tumor diagnoses. Amy talks about feeling scared being left with her suicidal mother, who moves Amy and her younger brother to Holland from the San Francisco Bay Area. Once she returns to the U.S. for college, Amy reconnects with her best friend who was another child of the real-life Joy Luck Club, a small social group of Chinese American immigrants who met to discuss investment opportunities, play mahjong and cards, and feast at midnight with the kids.


Years later, Amy is making a career as a business technical writer and living with her husband. One day she receives a call from her brother that her mother had a life-threatening heart attack. She said she made a vow to God that she will spend more time with her mother and talk to her about her life in China. When Amy connects with her mother, she learns her mother experienced angina after an argument at a fish market. Her mother was fine, but the promise echoes and inspires her to sit down with her mother and discover her mother’s life in China.

Check out the full blog post here

What we’re watching

Dear Mama on FX and Hulu is a five-part docuseries that shares the story of poet and rapper Tupac Shakur and his relationship with his mother Afeni Shakur. Afeni’s revolutionary roots taking sprout in the 1970s as a female leader within the Black Panther Party is also told in the 2005 book Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary by Jasmine Guy, best known as Whitley Gilbert in the classic NBC sitcom A Different World.

What the plans are


Nikki Giovanni will headline the Books in Bloom annual festival in Columbia, Maryland, on May 13 and will also participate in a panel discussing libraries and community centers.


No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks, a show co-written by Eve L. Ewing that uses intricate paper puppetry and other multimedia elements, will play at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago from May 16-17.


Samantha Irby with Symphony Space will be in conversation for her latest essay collection Quietly Hostile with Cynthia Nixon, Ilana Glazer, Aminatou Sow, and Jia Tolentino at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre on May 17 in New York City.

Where the opportunities are


Minneapolis-based Graywolf Press is accepting applications until May 21 for its 10-month paid Citizen Literary Fellowship designed to support a person who is interested in learning more about the publishing industry.

“We’re not telling you what books to buy or not buy. What we’re saying is, if a book is in circulation as determined by the libraries and the librarians, that book cannot be banned because a group of individuals don’t like or want that book in their library. That’s what the legislation is all about.”

– Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias on the passage of HB 2789

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Banning Books Could Lead to Defunding Libraries 

SHE LIT: Banning Books Could Lead to Defunding Libraries 📖

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Public libraries becoming targets for collections that include LGBTQ+ books

A rural Michigan town defunding its library over books featuring LGBTQ+ themes is the next level of book bans.

Book bans are at their highest level, according to the American Library Association that marks Banned Books Week every year this month. From Sept. 18-24, we will mark a year where more than ever school districts are voting to remove books from campus libraries, lawsuits are being waged to remove books from public libraries and bookstores, and now those public libraries could lose community funding over a particular book.

Patmos Library in Hudsonville, Michigan, was facing closure in early August after voters rejected a measure to renew funding for the library. The vote was blamed on a campaign waged by conservative Christians who believe books associated with LGBTQ+ themes are “grooming” children to be pedophiles, a QAnon belief that has become a mainstream conservative theory, according to media reports.

Less than 1% of Patmos Library’s books have LGBTQ+ content, the nonprofit advocacy group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State found. Yet the library was defunded.

Most book bans seem to occur within school libraries since parents have more power to address their school districts to remove books they deem inappropriate for children to read. Of course, many of these books being targeted are by LGBTQ+ authors and authors of color who write about gender, sexuality, and race.

But more of these book bans are trickling inside public libraries where individuals are heading to their city councils and court systems to request books be removed from libraries and even bookstores.

A concerned Patmos Library patron started a GoFundMe that now has raised over $255,000, which is $10,000 over the goal to help the library continue operations throughout 2023. Renowned romance novelist Nora Roberts noticed the GoFundMe after reading The Washington Post story about the library’s defunding and donated $50,000, her publicist’s blog notes. The funds are from the author personally, and not from her foundation, the blog adds.

Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir is one of the books at issue. It’s also the most banned book in America. The author and cartoonist, who uses e/eir pronouns, discusses eir discovery of eir gender identity in the graphic novel. The book was also at the center of an obscenity matter in a Virginia court that is resolved for now (more on that below).

Though Patmos Library is located in a community with a population of just less than 10,000, the possibility that a library can be defunded over the books they choose to carry is concerning. The head librarian, who identified as queer, quit amid the defunding campaign after being harassed inside the library, BuzzFeed News reports, adding other librarians had also quit for similar reasons.

Now that the library received national support to keep going, hardships still lie ahead. The harassment may continue toward the librarians, another campaign to somehow rid the library of LGBTQ+ books may be planned, or people may stop using the library.

The library’s next board meeting takes place Sept. 12, so we will see what the library has in store under the spotlight glow. Though the money will be there, its location in a community that largely wants it gone over a few books is an ongoing concern.

she lit editor + chief content creator

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Virginia court dismisses request to label books as obscene

The American Civil Liberties Union announced that its clients were victorious in getting an obscenity lawsuit against two books dismissed. The Circuit Court for the City of Virginia Beach rejected an effort to label Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas as obscene and illegal to sell and lend in the state.

The ACLU and the ACLU of Virginia represented local booksellers and book organizations. Barnes & Noble was the largest target of the lawsuit. Gender Queer was the most banned book in the U.S. last year, according to the American Library Association, one of the ACLU’s clients. Legal experts believe this is just the beginning for these types of lawsuits.

Prolific YA author shares new middle grade book, film trailer

Angie Thomas, the creator of The Hate U Give, has been quite busy this week. She introduced her upcoming The Manifestor Prophecy middle grade trilogy with the first book Nic Blake and the Remarkables. In an Instagram post, she writes the roots of the book were inside her for 15 years and the story has “hellhound puppies and haints and a literal Underground Railroad. It has Black Girl Magic.” The first installment is expected to be released April 4, 2023 from HarperCollins imprint Balzer + Bray.

During last Sunday’s presentation of the MTV Video Music Awards, the full trailer debuted for On the Come Up, Angie’s sophomore hip-hop-infused YA novel. Directed by actress Sanaa Lathan, the film stars Jamila Gray as Bri, the prodigal daughter of a late hip-hop legend trying to find her voice in music and at school. The film will start streaming on Paramount+ on Sept. 23.

While sharing the news of her projects via social media, she also shared her concerns as a Jackson, Mississippi, native seeing the current water crisis impacting the city of 150,000 unfold. Damaged infrastructure has caused the Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves to declare a state of emergency over residents—more than 80% who are Black—having little to no water pressure.

Reese Witherspoon adds kids’ author to her bookish titles

Book club queen and book-to-screen producer Reese Witherspoon announced the upcoming release for her new children’s picture book, Busy Betty, about a girl on a mission to bathe her dog before her friends come over to play. Her book launch will take place at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville. Illustrated by Xindi Yan, the book is published by Flamingo Books under Penguin Random House and will be available for sale on Oct. 4.

Michelle Buteau’s memoir-based comedy series starts casting

Comedienne and The Circle host Michelle Buteau’s book is getting the screen treatment. Her 2020 essay collection, Survival of the Thickest, will be turned into a Netflix comedy series of the same name starring the author in a fictionalized storyline. Her character will be a plus-size, single, Black woman who is struggling as a stylist but “determined to not only survive but thrive with the support of her chosen family, a body positive attitude, and a cute v-neck with some lip gloss,” according to Deadline. Tone Bell and Tasha Smith will also star.

What we’re reviewing

"The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School" by Sonora Reyes

Book Review: The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

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Authors Argue B&N’s Stocking Policy Hurts Sales

SHE LIT: Authors Argue B&N’s Stocking Policy Hurts Sales 💸

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Bulk of middle grade, YA fiction must prove profitability for placement at bookstores

Authors are fighting back against a Barnes & Noble stocking policy that they say hurts the sales of debut novels by people of color.

Middle grade author Kelly Yang shared a viral video of her daughter in a Barnes & Noble bookstore reacting to how her new novel Key Player in her Front Desk series was not going to be stocked at stores with other books in the same genre.

The rest of the video shows Kelly tearfully explaining that Barnes & Noble plans to stock only the top two books per publisher per season. She said her publisher told her that Barnes & Noble had decided to not stock the fourth book in her series, and many others in the middle grade and young adult genres, until the first editions sell successfully elsewhere.

Other authors and supporters replied to Kelly’s video to share their concern over the stocking policy they perceive as discriminatory.

The middle grade and YA genres are getting flooded with books by marginalized authors representing groups that have been grossly underrepresented in the literary industry.

In many cases, these authors, like Kelly Yang, have a large social media following that includes other similarly situated authors. So word spreads. If readers are not able to access these authors’ books from a highly visible chain bookstore, then that can spell trouble for overall sales.

Barnes & Noble boasts itself as the No. 1 book retailer in the U.S. and as the “internet’s largest bookstore” on its website.

CEO James Daunt views Barnes & Noble’s three-year-old stocking policy in a different light. “By allowing proper bookselling to take place at the store level, good books will have more space and better presentation, as well as genuine support from the booksellers of each store,” Daunt told NBC News.

“When we just took what was imposed by publishers, approximately 80% of the books were ultimately returned unsold. In effect, the bookstores were filled with books customers had no interest in reading. Now we sell most of what we buy,” he added.

In an interview with Publishers Weekly, Daunt said, “What we are doing—with middle grade and adult, fiction, and nonfiction, alike—is to exercise taste and judgment. This is to buy less but, if it is done with skill, it is to sell more.”

Authors took issue with the CEO’s words with phrases such as “good books will have more space and better presentation,” “books customers had no interest in reading,” and “to exercise taste and judgment” when referencing the wide variety of kids’ books.

Those already operating on smaller marketing budgets will have to prove their books are saleable in order to attain the coveted spot on a Barnes & Noble bookshelf. As for those unsaleable books, I wrote a blog post recently about how these books circulate to dollar stores and contribute to literacy access for consumers who cannot afford new books from Barnes & Noble.

Access is key here. Many consumers don’t think twice about buying a book from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com because these marketplaces are in their neighborhoods or online. Mindful book buyers have to go out of their way to seek books from an indie bookstore, so if these titles by authors of color solely depend on the indie bookstore market, then their sales are sure to plummet, unfortunately.

Even getting on best-sellers lists is at risk, but more importantly, potential readers—we’re talking kids here—don’t have their eyes on these books. That could be the greatest travesty of all for these authors who feel the Barnes & Noble stocking policy punches them in the gut. It’s not all about the money for these authors while Barnes & Noble, one of the only bookstore chains left, is about the money.

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Penguin Random House trial comes to a questioning end

Oral arguments ended this week in the antitrust trial of the moment between the Department of Justice and Penguin Random House in its bid to buy rival Simon & Schuster.

The federal government wants to prevent the potential Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster behemoth from dominating the book industry and putting authors at financial risk. The two publishers and Simon & Schuster’s parent company ViacomCBS, which put the Big Five publisher up for sale in 2020, vowed they would put authors first, but when it comes to book sales, that all depends on consumers (and bookstores).

The trial seemed to focus on authors who made six-figure advances and higher, according to media reports, such as Stephen King. As we wait for the verdict this fall, whatever the outcome, it will shake the industry to its core.

If Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster are allowed to go ahead with their merger, the Big Five of the top five publishers, which also include Macmillan, Hachette, and HarperCollins, may go down to the Big Four. The impact on employees, authors, and literary agents will remain to be seen if the merger goes through.

Taylor Jenkins Reid accused of racial insensitivity with new book

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo novelist Taylor Jenkins Reid is getting criticism for being a White author and featuring yet another Latina main character in her new novel. In Carrie Soto Is Back, the title character is Latina and looking for a comeback in professional tennis, which means competing against an Asian player who is experiencing racism.

Fellow book blogs like Bowties and Books and Tomes & Textiles, which are headed by bloggers who identify as Latine, say this is the second indiscretion from the author. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo also had its title character identify as Latina, though she was passing for White and straight for Hollywood success.

As we enter US Open season with all eyes on Serena Williams, Carrie Soto Is Back has conveniently received marketing dollars with pop-ups that started at Wimbledon in July. The bloggers argue this is an example of letting a White author tell stories about characters of color without investing in authors of color at the same level.

Brit Bennett manifests American Girl book deal

The best-selling author of The Vanishing Half shared a tweet from 2016 saying she wished she could strike a deal with American Girl. That dream now came true as Brit Bennett’s book Meet Claudie: An American Girl is a reality via an audiobook out this week.

A new American Girl character, Claudie is a Black girl living among creatives in 1920s Harlem. When her family gets an eviction notice for their boardinghouse, Claudie hatches a plan to save the day that incorporates her own creativity.

Robinne Lee’s ‘Idea of You’ book-to-film casts leading role

Anne Hathaway will star in the Amazon Prime Video film adaptation of actress Robinne Lee’s romance novel The Idea of You. Centered on a 40-something French American divorcée who falls in love with her daughter’s favorite boy bander, the 2017 novel will also be produced by Robinne, Anne, and Gabrielle Union, known for her book-to-screen works as well as her best-selling essay collections.

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"I'm Glad My Mom Died" by Jennette McCurdy

Book Review: Acne by Laura Chinn

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💞August is National Romance Awareness Month. Here’s some novels to curl up with💞

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‘Nope’ Star Keke Palmer Wrote Books to Share Her Talent

<![CDATA[SHE LIT: ‘Nope’ Star Wrote Books to Share Her Talent 💁🏾‍♀️]]> SHE LIT: ‘Nope’ Star Wrote Books to Share Her Talent 💁🏾‍♀️

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📚 Join the #shelitbookclub on July 31 as we discuss the novel Red Clocks by Leni Zumas amid the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Details can be found here.

Keke Palmer - Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max

Keke Palmer already told us who she is in her memoir and Amazon story collection

On this day as Beyoncé drops her long-awaited album Renaissance, let’s talk about Keke Palmer, who dominated the entertainment news this week, and tie that news to books.

Coming off a weekend spooked by Jordan Peele’s western thriller Nope, media attention focused squarely on star Keke Palmer. Rarely does a megahit have three actors of color on billboards, which included Keke, Daniel Kaluuya, and Steven Yeun, but allegations of colorism overshadowed the Twitterverse similar to Jean Jacket in the film.

A viral tweet where a tweeter brought up colorism in why Keke’s success may appear to not have the “mainstream popularity” Zendaya’s has struck a debate. The tweeter implied that Keke didn’t have the career like that of Zendaya, a star in her own right who was irrelevant to any conversation on Nope, but tried to clarify in the Twitter thread that the main tweet was to counter the remarks from people who say Nope is Keke’s breakout role.

In a clapback, Keke reminded us about her career and how she’s an “incomparable talent.” As media outlets reported on the story, many failed to point to her memoir and story collection that tell us about the career Lauren Keyana “Keke” Palmer has created for herself.

The tweeter implied that Keke is considered a star in fewer households compared to Zendaya, who is biracial and has a lighter complexion. Though both have kid sitcom roots, both these shining Black female stars do indeed lead different careers, and Keke set the record straight saying the tweet perpetuated colorism to even compare the two. She went on to remind us that she was the first Black Cinderella on Broadway and the youngest talk show host ever, to name a few accomplishments.

As the articles came out about the Twitter clarification and the timeline of Keke’s extraordinary career, barely any articles mentioned her books. Yes, like most celebrities, Keke received help writing those books, but still she has her name on several books that are available in print, e-book, and audio formats showcasing her dramatic voice punching up the personality on page.

Along with Nope, Keke lent her voice to another summer blockbuster out in theaters now: Lightyear, the Pixar animated film serving as a precursor to the Toy Story series that opened in June and so far grossed $117 million in the domestic box office. She also uses her voice in the audio recordings of her short story collection “Southern Belle Insults” that she released with Amazon Publishing last year and wrote with best-selling romance novelist Jasmine Guillory. The stories were based on her Instagram alter egos.

In My Dear Friend Janet, Keke uses her high-pitched drama queen narrator voice for Lady Miss who’s telling the story of a woman named Janet going through her day trying to come out of her shell but second-guesses her scripted plans. Then Janet agrees to put on a wig and transforms into Lady Miss, a story that continues in From the Desk of Lady Miss.

To back up her response, one can glean the facts of her career from child actor getting industry recognition (she remains the youngest actor to receive a SAG Award nomination at age 11 for her 2004 role in The Wool Cap) to grown-up star still getting industry recognition in her memoir I Don’t Belong to You: Quiet the Noise and Find Your Voice from Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books.

The 2017 book starts off telling her unlikely rise to stardom with her mother helping her take risks to get noticed by people like Ice Cube when the producer was looking for a young actress to play Queen Latifah’s character’s niece in the 2005 film Beauty Shop. A year later, buzz started to build for her starring role in Akeelah and the Bee, as a Black preteen from South Los Angeles who gets coached by Laurence Fishburne’s character to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Entertainers, particularly those of color, for example, have to prove themselves time and time again as random social media users may have their opinionated tweets go viral that forces the stars to respond to crush the negative publicity. Keke had to respond on the weekend Nope debuted in movie theaters at No. 1 because all eyes were on her.

But like many celebrity bookwomen, she had already told us who she is and how she operates in her memoir and story collection. Books sometimes are the forgotten vehicle competing with the internet when we want to learn about an individual. Excluding the unauthorized biographies, although those can be helpful at times, the books with the celebrities’ names on the book covers and their voices on the audiobooks are the stories those celebrities approved.

Those stories were carried out through their literary and business agents. They have a say on who helps them co-author those stories. That being said, her co-authors also deserve the credit, but those stories are still from Keke, who graced us with storytelling talents on top of being one of the youngest people, regardless of diversity markers, to be dominating Hollywood.

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Here’s Why Dollar Store Inflation Affects Literacy Access

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President Obama shares summer reading list

Days after his wife and former First Lady Michelle Obama announced her new book, former President Barack Obama shared his top books for the summer Tuesday on Instagram. Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, and The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan made the list.

Constance Wu returns to the scene with memoir news

Actress Constance Wu is slowly reemerging into the spotlight with a new memoir titled Making a Scene. Published by Scribner, the essay collection is expected out in October. She recently revealed her suicide attempt after sharing her disappointment of her TV show ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat being renewed in 2020 when her film career was taking off. The Hustlers and book-to-film Crazy Rich Asians alum said she had to take a break from social media but lately has been posting about past and current projects.

Journalist Goldie Taylor announces childhood memoir

Former editor at large for The Daily Beast Goldie Taylor will have her life story in book form. The Love You Save echoes Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as she tells the story of how being raped by a man in her neighborhood leads to her living in East St. Louis with an aunt. Abuse continues in her new home, but she finds solace in James Baldwin’s words. The memoir is planned for release in January from Hanover Square Press.

Whoopi Goldberg shares re-release of her middle grade series

Actress, comedienne, and The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg posted a video of herself opening boxes to reveal the re-release of her Sugar Plum Ballerinas series. Originally published in 2008 by Disney Book Group’s now-defunct Jump at the Sun imprint, the first two books, Plum Fantastic and Toeshoe Trouble, are getting a makeover from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as the stories focus on young ballerinas of color. The updated versions of the books have new artwork on their covers and are now available through Hachette Audio narrated by Bahni Turpin.

More bookish headlines:

Hollywood favorite Book Soup employees unionize

Books Are Magic in New York City is opening a second location

Bookstore owner says racist trolls keep adding her business to a boycott list

What we’re reviewing

"Zyla & Kai" by Kristina Forest

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Nicola and David Yoon Are Ready to “Change the World” With Joy Revolution Imprint

How a Mormon Housewife Turned a Fake Diary Into an Enormous Best-Seller

Beyond Books: How Suburban Libraries Are Serving Latino Patrons

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‘Ashes of Gold’ Author J. Elle Shares How She Crafted ‘Wings of Ebony’ Fantasy YA Series With Black Duality in Mind

Fantasy young adult author J. Elle is marking the end of her Wings of Ebony duology about a Black teen girl from Houston who’s on a mission to understand her bloodline in the magical land of Ghizon.

Ashes of Gold, published by Denene Millner Books and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, came out last month continuing the story of Rue, raised in Houston with her younger sister by their late mother, who must follow her destiny in her father’s homeland of Ghizon and save her magic-possessing people from destruction.

Photo credit: Chris Spicks Photography

But readers don’t have to wait long to read more of J. Elle’s work. Her middle grade fantasy YA duology, A Taste of Magic, will be published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books this summer.

The first book in the series will introduce us to 12-year-old Kyana, a Black girl who’s recently learned she’s a witch and becomes a student at the Park Row Magic Academy hidden behind a beauty shop. Once she realizes redistricting and gentrification will close the shop, she fights to keep it open.

J. Elle talks to she lit about anticipating the debut of her middle grade duology, owning the “inner city fantasy” subgenre in the increasingly diverse fantasy YA genre, and transitioning from a teacher whose book pitch was discovered by literary agents on Twitter to teaching books she’s written in the classroom. Check out the conversation below:

she lit: Your YA duology features Rue, a Black girl from Houston’s Third Ward, who travels to the magical land of Ghizon to fulfill her birthright. How did you come up with the subgenre of an “inner-city fantasy” and what inspired you to make this character bicultural struggling to exist between two worlds?

J. Elle: The aesthetic of the story honestly came to me as I tried to make a fantasy world I could see myself in. I wanted to craft a world that felt familiar to me and I grew up in an inner city community. I found when I left my community to attend college, the first in my family to do so, and get a job or move to other parts of the country, I felt like I was in an entirely different world sometimes. I wanted to parallel that dichotomy in this story and explore the many ways Black Americans might feel like they’re forced to live a double life when they’re in spaces that aren’t inclusive. 

she lit: You’ve said Rue’s background has elements of your own. Without giving spoilers, is there a scene in Ashes of Gold that you wrote based on a particular experience?

J. Elle: Most of Ashes of Gold takes place on the magical island of Ghizon, but there is a moment in the book where Rue returns to East Row that is reminiscent of how it felt when I’d come home from college. It was nostalgic and quite special to be able to explore the ways being able to connect with home is an affirming experience. 

she lit: How would you describe Rue’s character development in Ashes of Gold compared to Wings of Ebony?

J. Elle: Rue’s view of herself changes from the start of Ashes to the end. She has a definitive assumption about what she is capable of and the journey she goes on shows her she is capable of—and worthy of—much more than she thinks. It was a challenging book to write because book one, Wings of Ebony, leaves off with Rue seemingly unstoppable. But she had plenty of room to still grow. I just had to dig in to find it.

she lit: In both books, Rue has a longing to protect her Houston family and her fellow Ghizonis. What do young readers usually tell you about how they relate to this balance of supporting family and community?

J. Elle: I’ve had readers tell me the idea of not wanting to let family down really resonated with them. So many of us carry the pressures of supporting those who came before us. I was really glad to hear readers were able to see their lived experiences reflected here.

she lit: How would you describe the transition of being a teacher then becoming an author who is teaching through your books?

J. Elle: It was really interesting! I miss the way I could read kids’ faces as I stood in front of them teaching a concept. I loved seeing the light bulb click, hearing their opinions. When I write books, I’m sending my words out in the world for students to consume on their own. And so I miss hearing from them! Seeing their faces as they read! I try to do as many school visits as I can because I just love working with students so much.

she lit: With your passion in creating characters that kids can relate to, what are your concerns about more and more diverse YA books, many by Black authors, being banned from schools and libraries across the country?

J. Elle: Book banning is deeply grieving. When has the government trying to control the narrative of history taught in school ever gone well? Creating freethinkers is the purpose of education. Students who can reason and analyze and interpret with the rich perspective they bring to the table. The beauty of this country is “supposed to be” its freedom of ideas. But that grates against the actual picture of what’s happening with book banning all over the country. I am consoled, however, knowing that books in schools are only one way kids access books. I am hoping to see communities band together to exercise their constitutional right to read whatever they choose. There’s much more I could say here, but I’ll wrap up by offering this small encouragement: I believe in our kids. I believe in the relentless persistence of their curiosity, the connectedness they cling to nowadays via social media, and their spirit, their heart. Tell a kid in school something is forbidden, they’re only going to want it more. The banners will fail. Look at history.

she lit: What’s it like working with accomplished author and editor Denene Millner and having your duology under her imprint?

J. Elle: It was a true privilege to work with Denene. She brought such a needed eye to my story and helped me contextualize the themes I wanted to explore with the nuance I needed. I’ll forever be grateful for her seeing me in her inbox and saying, yes. It changed my life.

she lit: Your book series was discovered through the literary pitch competition #DVPit. What do you think was the secret sauce that made your successful tweet stand out for agents?

J. Elle: Strong comparison titles and a fresh hook help pitches stand out. My comps were The Hate U Give meets Wonder Woman, which aesthetically is incredibly fresh. There’s no guarantee with contests of course and what’s “fresh” is a bit nebulous at times to figure out. But running a pitch by a few people who don’t know what the story about can be a fun way to see if your tweet feels fresh and engaging.

she lit: You’re promoting Ashes of Gold and the end of the Wings of Ebony duology. What can you reveal about your next duology, A Taste of Magic, and how does the Park Row Magic Academy compare to Ghizon?

J. Elle: A Taste of Magic is about 12-year-old Kyana who must cook up some magic to save her magic school from the effects of gentrification. It’s a delightful middle grade story so the biggest difference is the age range and tone. Tonally it’s much more lighthearted and funny than Wings of Ebony. My YA tends to be a bit grittier and dark. A Taste of Magic is for any age, but I’ve tried to target 9-12 year olds with Kyana’s voice and sensibilities. I’m so excited for readers to meet Kyana!