If You Knew My Name: A Novel in Verse

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2024 Silver INDIES Winner for Young Adult Fiction

A novel-in-rap-verse telling the story of 17-year-old Mason Tyndallan 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 ZyAire Tyndall has big dreams. Dreams of sick beats, epic mic-drops, sold out stadiums. Masons going to be a rap starand you dont 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 hell have to graduate high school first. And he cant do that if he fails his senior year.

Convinced his poetry class is a waste of time, Masons 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 riseamong the cops, the community, and even Masons peers.

Caught in the middle of increasingly violent conflicts, Mason will have to find a way to use his voice for changeand fast.

Reviews

INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist!

"The novel is beautifully written in verse, including raps with strong rhythms and tight, cohesive rhymes. An additional demonstration of Carter's expertise is that the poems written and presented by the students are in different forms, each distinctly unique to the student. This is a brilliantly accessible and widely appealing novel." Booklist (starred review)

"Carters debut teems with vulnerability and shows a deep reverence for hip-hop . . . diverse supporting characters provide healthy tension." Kirkus Reviews

Author Bio

Growing up in the rural South during desegregation, Lisa Roberts Carter is no stranger to racism she recalls her mother and older sister having the talk with her on her very first day of school. Among the many reminders that racism was deeply embedded within her Southern culture, she experienced the residual effects of the Jim Crow South throughout her life. So, a frustrated Lisa decided to pen those thoughts, feelings, and experiences by writing historical and contemporary fiction that address racism and racial inequality. Lisa is a certified life and career coach and inspirational speaker with a Doctorate of Education and If You Knew My Name is her debut novel.