{"id":44878,"date":"2025-02-17T21:32:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T02:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=44878"},"modified":"2025-02-17T21:32:25","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T02:32:25","slug":"review-of-black-girl-you-are-atlas-by-renee-watson-fine-art-by-ekua-holmes-read-by-renee-watson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=44878","title":{"rendered":"Review of Black Girl, You Are Atlas, by Ren\u00e9e Watson, fine art by Ekua Holmes, read by Ren\u00e9e Watson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Black Girl, You Are Atlas<\/em><\/p>\n

by Ren\u00e9e Watson
\nfine art by Ekua Holmes
\nread by Ren\u00e9e Watson<\/p>\n

Kokila, 2024. 81 pages.
\nListening Library, 2024. 52 minutes.
\nReview written February 10, 2025, from a library book and eaudiobook.
\nStarred Review
\n2025 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
\n2025 Odyssey Honor Audiobook
\n2025 Rise List Top Ten
\n2025 Cybils Winner, Poetry Collection<\/a><\/p>\n

Black Girl, You Are Atlas<\/em> is a book of poetry about growing up as a Black girl, as a sister, a daughter, and a Black girl seeing how the world around her treats Black girls.<\/p>\n

The title poem refers to the Greek hero Atlas who held the weight of the world. But it also talks about an atlas that shows the way forward and the way back. It expresses all that a Black girl carries.<\/p>\n

Other poems talk about turning 7, turning 13, turning 16, and turning 17, about being a sister, about surviving the teenage years. And about holding onto happiness.<\/p>\n

Both the audio and the print versions of this book are exquisite. I always listen to every Odyssey Honor audiobook I can get my hands on. This one is read by the author and expresses her powerful words. The print version, on the other hand, has Ekua Holmes amazing art accompanying it. Both versions are short, so there’s no reason not to enjoy this book both ways.<\/p>\n

As a white woman, I did appreciate these poems – but get them into the hands of every Black teenage girl you know. There are powerful words in this book.<\/p>\n

reneewatson.net<\/a>
\nekuaholmes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teen_Nonfiction\/black_girl_you_are_atlas.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black Girl, You Are Atlas by Ren\u00e9e Watson fine art by Ekua Holmes read by Ren\u00e9e Watson Kokila, 2024. 81 pages. Listening Library, 2024. 52 minutes. Review written February 10, 2025, from a library book and eaudiobook. Starred Review 2025 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book 2025 Odyssey Honor Audiobook 2025 Rise List Top Ten […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,46,28,42,404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiobooks","category-biography","category-poetry","category-starred-review","category-teen-nonfiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44878"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44911,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44878\/revisions\/44911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}