Vinyl Moon

 

My Thoughts:

Snaps to black girl magic in this multi genre book about Angel, a teen sent to Brooklyn after an incident with her abusive boyfriend. In New York, she lives with a loving, hard working uncle. At her new school, she finds a teacher who guides her to reconnect with herself and reimagine her future through the books in her room as well as through the other girls in Ms. Gʻs H.E.R. advisory (Her Excellence is Resilience & Honoring Everyones Roots). The vignettes and poems are about Angel, her dreams, her awakening, her friends, her music. But it is also a song for Brooklyn in the same way that House on Mango Street is a song about Chicago. 

For English teachers, this is a mentor text for your writers, as well as a book list of what should be in the literary American canon. If as high school English teachers, we have not offered these books to our students, are we preparing them?: 

• James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, Notes of a Native Son
• Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye, Sula
• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Ms. Browne, through Angel, brings these writers back into the consciousness of new readers in a format that will make them curious and perhaps pick it up on their own. As an educator and a former AP teacher, I appreciate that. I remember giving my public school students The Bluest Eye for summer reading, then spending the whole summer wondering if I was going to get called in by the principal or an irate parent. I had my intention and justification papers ready, and although I never got questioned, I knew it was a risk. I also enjoyed the little rant Angel has with the librarian about what is classic and should be read and what is not valued. Using this book as a pep talk for English teachers to pay attention to this kind of student who uses reading as a window, a mirror, a sliding glass door, as well as a healing stone is an important reminder as we start to think again about creating our own curriculum and our own resources for these times of upheaval. 

Bring Vinyl Moon into the classroom as a mentor text for writing workshop. Bring it in as a stepping stone for other books. Pair it with House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros or the Oceania vignettes of Girl in the Moon Circle by Sia Figiel. Let black and brown girl magic from the diaspora vibrate through your classroom. Wouldn't that be fabulous? I am already excited to create curriculum.

Finally, when authors bother to write letters in the beginning of the book, I like to read it. I like to hear others talk about their intentionality and their "why," so I also want to honor that.

This is a story about finding your way. This is one of so many of our stories. I hope it brings you closer to sharing your voice. I hope it lights a candle in the cavern where you hide yourself. I hope it feels safe to read these voices and know they are thinking about you being and breathing. Wherever you are.  --Mahogany L. Browne

From the. Publisher:

When Darius told Angel he loved her, she believed him. But five weeks after the incident, Angel finds herself in Brooklyn, far from her family, from him, and from the California life she has known.
 
Angel feels out of sync with her new neighborhood. At school, she can’t shake the feeling everyone knows what happened—and that it was her fault. The only place that makes sense is Ms. G’s class. There, Angel’s classmates share their own stories of pain, joy, and fortitude. And as Angel becomes immersed in her revolutionary literature course, the words from Black writers like Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Zora NEale Hurston speak to her and begin to heal the wounds of her past.

This stunning novel weaves together prose, poems, and vignettes to tell the story of Angel, a young woman whose past was shaped by domestic violence but whose love of language and music and the gift of community grant her the chance to find herself again.