If You Knew My Name

A Novel in Verse

By: Lisa Roberts Carter

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Hardcover | 1 January 2024

At a Glance

Hardcover
272 Pages

Age
12 - 18

Grade
7 - 12

Dimensions(cm)
20.32 x 13.34 x 2.54

Hardcover

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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.

Industry Reviews

"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)

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

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