Kwame Alexander Book 3

Seventeen-year-old Blade Peters, a misfit with a few friends and an on-again, off-again girlfriend, Chapel, is having the worst high school year ever. He wishes he could disappear from the public eye, because the only thing worse than reading about his rock-n-roll legend family every day on the celebrity gossip blogs, is being a member of it. He detests his rock-star parent’s decadent parties, is frightened by his younger sister’s obvious depression, and haunted by memories of how rock-n-roll has ruined his life. Regardless of his family's fame and all the adoring fans, Blade knows his family is deeply flawed, and even fragile. When his father is arrested—again—he finds his mother inconsolably crying in her bathroom. With one more summer left in Hollywood before leaving for college, he knows time is running out if he wants his family to mean more than infamous headlines; if he wants his family to survive. Outspoken in his desire for change, he assumes the leadership in his dysfunctional family and hatches a plan that will send the Peters on a journey to Africa, and, if it works, just may change their lives—if it doesn’t kill them first. In his quest to show himself, his family, and ultimately an entire community, that you can recover from your mistakes with greater strength, courage and understanding, Blade inadvertently becomes a leader, like Peter, who taught that if you want to be a leader in life, you have to be humble and serve other people. In this novel-in-verse for teens, readers will see the eccentricities of fame, humor, sorrow, love, and forgiveness in the life of a "famous" misfit, who would rather be true to himself than make Hollywood headlines in his quest for a life filled with faith. And love.

About the Author :
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and the New York Times bestselling author of 28 books, including Swing, Solo, and Rebound, the follow-up to his Newbery Medal-winning middle grade novel, The Crossover. Some of his other works include Booked, a National Book Award nominee; The Playbook: 52 Rules to Help You Aim, Shoot, and Score in this Game Called Life; and the Coretta Scott King Award-winning Out of Wonder. The 2018 NEA Read Across America Ambassador, Kwame is also the host and producer of the literary variety/talk show, Bookish, which airs on Facebook Watch, the cofounding director of the LEAP for Ghana initiative, and the Founding Editor of VERSIFY, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers. Mary Rand Hess is a poet, mixed-media artist, screenwriter, and New York Times bestselling author of Solo and Animal Ark: Celebrating Our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures, both coauthored with Kwame Alexander.