Lisa Roberts Carter's debut, If You Knew My Name, is a novel-in-verse telling the story of 17-year-old Mason Tyndall- an aspiring rap artist whose mother is a BLM activist. She saw fatal officer-involved shootings as senseless tragedies. He viewed them as trending hashtags - that is, until he almost became one.
Mason Zy'Aire Tyndall has big dreams. Dreams of sick beats, epic mic-drops, sold out stadiums. Mason's going to be a rap star-and you don't become a rap star by hitting up BLM protests with your mom or sitting at a desk. Mason wants to get out there and make a name for himself, but he'll have to graduate high school first. And he can't do that if he fails his senior year.
Convinced his poetry class is a waste of time, Mason's teacher helps him see just how valuable a couplet and a rhyme can be. But when an unarmed Black man is killed by the police in his city, tensions start to rise-among the cops, the community, and even Mason's peers.
Caught in the middle of increasingly violent conflicts, Mason will have to find a way to use his voice for change…and fast.
| ISBN: | 9781771683609 |
| Publication date: | 1st August 2024 |
| Author: | Lisa Roberts Carter |
| Publisher: | Central Avenue Teen an imprint of Central Avenue Publishing |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 272 pages |
| Genres: |
Verse Novels Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Racism and anti-racism |