National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates's captivating young adult adaptation of his 2008 memoir, The Beautiful Struggle, tells the story of his adolescence under the tough-love tutelage of his father, a man described as having the "aura of a prophet."
Using short snippets of memories, Coates guides readers through his childhood in West Baltimore, a life that was far from easy for a kid with a pacifist streak and a "native dreamy state"; Coates describes himself as a kid who would rather "talk and duck" than fight. All that changes after his first schoolyard altercation. Coates fights to carve out a place for himself in a hostile world by arming himself with "the Knowledge" and gaining "Consciousness" through his father's instruction. Through navigating familial relationships--especially the one with his father--and playground politics, Coates comes to an understanding of what it means to be a young Black man in the United States.
While this edition of The Beautiful Struggle is directed toward younger readers, it provides a complex and nuanced exploration of adolescent masculinity that is relevant for readers of all backgrounds. Coates reimagines the very real conflicts of his world in fantastical terms--knights and kings vying for territory, orcs and goblins waiting to attack unsuspecting victims--which both invites in readers unused to nonfiction and uses vivid imagination to explore the complexity of his youthful experience. An accessible and enlightening edition of an extraordinary book. --Cade Williams, 19