Watch Us Rise by Ren�e Watson

Watch Us Rise by Ren�e Watson

This stunning book is the story I've been waiting for my whole life; where girls rise up to claim their space with joy and power. --Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Speak

An extraordinary story of two indomitable spirits. --Brendan Kiely, New York Times bestselling co-author of All American Boys and Tradition

Timely, thought-provoking, and powerful. --Julie Murphy, New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin'

Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Ren e Watson teams up with poet Ellen Hagan in this YA feminist anthem about raising your voice.

Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission--they're sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online--poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences--and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate in real life, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices--and those of other young women--to be heard.
These two dynamic, creative young women stand up and speak out in a novel that features their compelling art and poetry along with powerful personal journeys that will inspire readers and budding poets, feminists, and activists.

Acclaim for Piecing Me Together
2018 Newbery Honor Book
2018 Coretta Scott King Author Award
2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Young Adult Finalist
Timely and timeless. --Jacqueline Woodson, award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming
Watson, with rhythm and style, somehow gets at . . . the life-changing power of voice and opportunity. --Jason Reynolds, NYT-bestselling author of Long Way Down
Brilliant. --John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars
* Teeming with compassion and insight. --Publishers Weekly, starred review
* A timely, nuanced, and unforgettable story about the power of art, community, and friendship. --Kirkus , starred review
* A nuanced meditation on race, privilege, and intersectionality. --SLJ, starred review

ELLEN HAGAN is the author of Hemisphere (TriQuarterly Books, 2015) and Crowned. A writer, performer, and educator, she is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in poetry and has received grants from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Her poems and essays have been published in Creative Nonfiction and Poetry Northwest and in the anthologies She Walks in Beauty, Southern Sin, and Women of Resistance. Hagan is the director of the poetry and theater departments at the DreamYard Project and directs their International Poetry Exchange Program with Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. She coleads the Alice Hoffman Young Writers Retreat at Adelphi University. She lives with her partner and children in New York City.