RENÉE WATSON Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author with over one million books sold. Her award-winning young adult novel, Piecing Me Together, received a Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbery Honor. Her poetry collection, Black Girl You are Atlas, received a Coretta Scott King Honor and was the winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award. Her debut novel, skin & bones, was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year. Known for centering her poetry and fiction around the experiences of Black girls and women, Watson’s work explores themes of identity and the intersections of race, class, and gender. Her books include the Ryan Hart Series, All the Blues in the Sky, and the critically acclaimed picture book, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water co-written with Nikole Hannah-Jones.

 

ALL THE BLUES IN THE SKY

Sage’s thirteenth birthday was supposed to be about movies and treats, staying up late with her best friend, and watching the sunrise together.  Instead, it was the day her best friend died. Without the person she had to hold her secrets and dream with, Sage is lost. In a counseling group with other girls who have lost someone close to them, she learns that not all losses are the same, and healing isn’t predictable. There is sadness, loneliness, anxiety, guilt, pain, love. And even as Sage grieves, new, good things enter her life — and she just may find a way to know that she can feel it all. In accessible, engaging verse and prose, this is an important story of a girl’s journey to heal, grow, and forgive herself. To read it is to see how many shades there are in grief, and to know that someone understands. 

 

BLACK GIRL YOU ARE ATLAS

Black Girl You Are Atlas is 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