Anger is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo

ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOW by Elizabeth Acevedo (The Poet X) is an emotional story about Lil, a high school student, and her friends and family. Everything, including the beautiful, eye-catching cover, combines to produce an extremely high quality, engaging read. In fact, ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOW received at least SIX starred reviews (Booklist, BookPage, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Kirkus (“handles the issues Lil faces with believable sensitivity and insight”), Publishers Weekly (“a striking and nuanced portrait of the realities of juvenile detention and mental illness”), and School Library Journal). Lil (Liliana Teicuh Pantaleon-Ortiz) faces some daunting circumstances, including family economic stresses, a food truck crash and subsequent arraignment, as well as trying to help her older brother through his own mental health crisis. Set in the Washington, DC area, ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOWchronicles Lil’s coming of age as she struggles with her impulsivity, building strength from her family, a love of books shared with a supportive school employee, and a new set of friends. Her mixed heritage and cultural myths are woven throughout, but award-winner Acevedo truly excels by using poetry to express Lil’s thinking:

I Am Not From

people who
can fix clocks.
I wish I could touch the big hand
and turn it back,
loop the yesterdays
to a time when things were simple.
Reset the rotating Earth,
and unwind my biggest mistakes.
They say time heals all wounds. 
I am not from people
who can fix clocks,
make it so there was never a wound
to begin with.

ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOW is a story of resilience which should be in all high school libraries.