In the Key of Us
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Stonewall Book Awards—Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Honor Book
From the author of the critically acclaimed novel For Black Girls Like Me and the Schneider Family Book Award Winner Forever Is Now, comes a coming-of-age story surrounding the losses that threaten to break us and the friendships that make us whole again.
Thirteen-year-old Andi feels stranded after the loss of her mother, the artist who swept color onto Andi’s blank canvas. When she is accepted to a music camp, Andi finds herself struggling to play her trumpet like she used to before her whole world changed. Meanwhile, Zora, a returning camper, is exhausted trying to please her parents, who are determined to make her a flute prodigy, even though she secretly has a dancer’s heart.
At Harmony Music Camp, Zora and Andi are the only two Black girls in a sea of mostly white faces. In kayaks and creaky cabins, the two begin to connect, unraveling their loss, insecurities, and hopes for the future. And as they struggle to figure out who they really are, they may just come to realize who they really need: each other.
Mariama J. Lockington's In the Key of Us is a lyrical ode to music camp, the rush of first love, and the power of one life-changing summer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ten months after the death of her artist mother, 13-year-old Andrea "Andi" Byrd, who lives with her mother's pregnant sister, has lost any desire to express herself through her trumpet. But arriving at prestigious, predominantly white Harmony Music Camp, the rising seventh grader feels like an outsider, not used to the rigid schedule or the competition. Outside of friendship with Christopher Flores, who is of Filipino descent and navigating familial experiences of his own, Andi is often grouped with the only other Black camper: 12-year-old Zora Lee Johnson, a flautist who struggles to meet her perfectionist parents' standards. As the two build a true connection—Zora helps Andi improve her playing, while Andi helps Zora embrace her true passion—they start to trust each other with insecurities, secrets, and moments of self-discovery. Alternating the two perspectives with verse interstitials, Lockington (For Black Girls Like Me) weaves an exploration of mental health, self-harm, and microagressions with a love letter to music, the importance of representation, and the work of sticking up for the person one dreams of becoming. Ages 8–12.
Customer Reviews
it was great
it was a very interesting book filled with emotions.I love how the author wrote it in a lot of perspectives where we can understand the characters emotions.it was a great book.