Review by Booklist Review
The year 1921 finds 17-year-old Isaiah living in the idyllic and prosperous district of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an area that Booker T. Washington dubbed the Black Wall Street. It's a close-knit African American community where everyone knows everyone else. That means Isaiah knows beautiful, seraphic Angel. Following the lead of his obnoxious friend Muggy, Isaiah has made Angel's life miserable for years. That all changes when Isaiah sees her dance and falls instantly in love. But romance is only part of this story, which takes a much darker turn as it tells of the invasion of Greenwood by a rabid white mob that burns the city to the ground. While Isaiah and Angel are imagined, the invasion is based on real history that must be remembered. The book is something of a mixed bag, however; its subject is inarguably important, but it requires fresher diction and more subtle characterization. Nevertheless, it deserves praise for its vivid treatment of the invasion and, importantly, invites empathy.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This harrowing fictional account of Black community action centers the eve of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Angel Hill, 16, is a quiet churchgoing dancer with a passion for helping others and a love for Booker T. Washington. Beneath his mischievous exterior, 17-year-old Isaiah Wilson is a poet who admires W.E.B. Du Bois. Angel is beloved by all of Greenwood, a town of Black excellence across the Frisco tracks from white Tulsa, Okla., while Isaiah is known for hanging out with the wrong crowd. Paired together for a summer job manning a mobile library, the two immediately begin debating the philosophies of "tolerant" Washington and more "active" Du Bois. They also instantly fall in love: Isaiah with Angel's dance and compassion, she with his poetry and exuberance, and both with the other's undying devotion to Greenwood, America's Black Wall Street. Life is disrupted, though, when white Tulsans invade Greenwood and set the town ablaze. Rich in its discussion of Black literature, this novel brilliantly juxtaposes a lighthearted story of young Black love with a deft reminder that such beauty has often been violently seized from Black people, and that these instances deserve remembrance. Ages 12--up. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Jan.)
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