Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational

WHAT LANE?

Torrey Maldonado

"STAY IN YOUR LANE." Stephen doesn't want to hear that--he wants to have no lane.

Anything his friends can do, Stephen should be able to do too, right? So when they dare each other to sneak into an abandoned building, he doesn't think it's his lane, but he goes. Here's the thing, though: Can he do everything his friends can? Lately, he's not so sure. As a mixed kid, he feels like he's living in two worlds with different rules--and he's been noticing that strangers treat him differently than his white friends...

So what'll he do? Hold on tight as Stephen swerves in and out of lanes to find out which are his--and who should be with him.

Torrey Maldonado, author of the highly acclaimed Tight and Secret Saturdays, does a masterful job showing a young boy coming of age in a racially split world, trying to blaze a way to be his best self.
He is a teacher in Brooklyn, New York, where he was born and raised. His books reflect his students' and his experiences.

Available products
Book Published 2020-04-14 by Nancy Paulsen Books

Comments

In this engaging, timely novel, sixth grader Stephen is growing up in Brooklyn; he loves "superheroes, fantasy, sci-fi" and basketball, as well as hanging out with his best friend Dan, the same as he always has. But though his white mother calls him "mixed," since he's half black and half white, Stephen's beginning to realize the world now sees him as "what they imagine or what the media teaches them to think about Black men." In situations where Dan, who is white, is considered harmless, Stephen gets in trouble for doing the very same thingsand being perceived as trouble can have dire consequences. Maldonado (Tight) paints a vivid, relatable picture of an adventurous boy learning the rewards and dangers of straying out of his lane against the backdrop of an unfair system that could see him killed or arrested for the behaviors his white peers easily engage in. The characters are warmly realistic, by turns impulsive and regretful. In relatively few words, Maldonado elucidates matters related to racial profiling, police violence against black people, and allyship, all through the eyes of a brave kid trying to figure out who he is and where he belongs.

Nerdy Book Club spotlighted the cover for WHAT LANE? by Torrey Maldonado along with an essay by the author titled "I'm Glad You're My Child's Teacher". Read more...