Review Source: Rethinking Schools
Book Author: Renée Watson
Black Girl You Are Atlas is Renée Watson’s first book of poetry. Like her novels, Watson’s poems explore the intersection of race, class, and gender. And like her novels, this semi-autobiographical collection celebrates the joys and sorrows of growing up a Black girl in this country. Woven throughout the book are loving odes to Black women — mothers, sisters, friends. Although young people are the book’s intended audience, the pieces will resonate across age levels. Black Girl You Are Atlas is a teacher’s dream, full of diverse styles of poetry from haikus and tankas to pantoums, odes, and free verse. It is Watson’s topics — age poems, like “Turning Thirteen” — that teachers can draw from to shape lessons that bring together students’ lives and the world:
Rodney King has been beaten by LAPD police officers
and I can’t stop wondering if one day the cute Black boy at school
will also be beaten or disappear or die
at the hands of police or white supremacists
like so many Black boys, Black men, do
Ekua Holmes’ artwork adds a jaw-dropping layer of beauty, rarely witnessed outside of picture books. Her collages will inspire poems on their own.
Find more recommended poetry books for K-12.
Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson
Published by Penguin on February 13, 2024
Genres: Poetry
Pages: 96
Reading Level: Grades 6-8
ISBN: 9780593461716
Review Source: Rethinking Schools
Also by this author: Piecing Me Together, Ways to Make Sunshine
A thoughtful celebration of Black girlhood by award-winning author and poet Renée Watson.
In this semi-autobiographical collection of poems, Renée Watson writes
about her experience growing up as a young Black girl at the intersections of race, class, and gender.Using a variety of poetic forms, from haiku to free verse, Watson shares recollections of her childhood in Portland, tender odes to the Black women in her life, and urgent calls for Black girls to step into their power.
Black Girl You Are Atlas encourages young readers to embrace their future with a strong sense of sisterhood and celebration. With full-color art by celebrated fine artist Ekua Holmes throughout, this collection offers guidance and is a gift for anyone who reads it.
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