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In her most famous spoken-word poem, author of the Pura Belpré-winning novel-in-verse The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo embraces all the complexities of Black hair and Afro-Latinidad - the history, pain, pride, and powerful love of that inheritance.
They tell me to "fix" my hair.
And by fix, they mean straighten, they mean whiten;
but how do you fix this shipwrecked
history of hair?
Paired with full-color illustrations by artist Andrea Pippins in a format that will appeal to fans of Mahogany L. Browne's Black Girl Magic or Jason Reynolds's For Everyone, this poem can now be read in a vibrant package, making it the ideal gift, treasure, or inspiration for readers of any age.
"An illustrated poem that acknowledges prejudice and celebrates Black hair...Pippins' bright, colorful, and evocative art covers full pages, lovingly portraying the all-Black cast with a diverse range of skin tones and hair textures...An incredible amount of reflection appears in this slim volume, making this a wonderful choice for group discussions. Brave, sharp, and powerful." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"In spoken-word lines that explicate the tension between what people say and what they mean, Acevedo confronts the cultural specter of hair-related prejudice through the lens of colonial history and Afro-Dominican identity." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"In this small book, every square inch of every page is full of color and visual depictions of the poem's evocative lines. The palette in Pippin's illustrations—every shade of brown and warm terracotta earth tones—echoes the poem's sentiments...[a] beautiful, inviting presentation of Acevedo's poem." - Booklist (starred review)
This information about Inheritance was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Stephanie Ifendu
Elizabeth Acevedo is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High—which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal—and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus finalist.
She holds a BA in Performing Arts from George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer's Workshops...
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