Description

Lisa Roberts Carter s debut, If You Knew My Name, is a novel-in-verse telling the story of 17-year-old Mason Tyndall– an 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 Zy Aire Tyndall has big dreams. Dreams of sick beats, epic mic-drops, sold out stadiums. Mason s going to be a rap star–and you don t 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 he ll have to graduate high school first. And he can t do that if he fails his senior year. Convinced his poetry class is a waste of time, Mason s 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 rise–among the cops, the community, and even Mason s peers. Caught in the middle of increasingly violent conflicts, Mason will have to find a way to use his voice for change…and fast.