The Nickel BoysWhen Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood's only salvation is his friendship with fellow "delinquent" Turner, which deepens despite Turner's conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at

when angry

The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind

Just a kid from Akron

from politics

and Misty Copeland

now patients in a facility

and more--because there are countless ways to be Black enough

the motherless daughter of a farmer who tries to marry her off to the farmhand who viciously raped her

But with time

and children has been deeply imprinted

This framework

the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection