In the Key of Us
Stonewall Book Awards―Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Honor Book
From the author of the critically acclaimed novel For Black Girls Like Me and the Schneider Family Book Award Winner Forever Is Now, comes a coming-of-age story surrounding the losses that threaten to break us and the friendships that make us whole again.
Thirteen-year-old Andi feels stranded after the loss of her mother, the artist who swept color onto Andi’s blank canvas. When she is accepted to a music camp, Andi finds herself struggling to play her trumpet like she used to before her whole world changed. Meanwhile, Zora, a returning camper, is exhausted trying to please her parents, who are determined to make her a flute prodigy, even though she secretly has a dancer’s heart.
At Harmony Music Camp, Zora and Andi are the only two Black girls in a sea of mostly white faces. In kayaks and creaky cabins, the two begin to connect, unraveling their loss, insecurities, and hopes for the future. And as they struggle to figure out who they really are, they may just come to realize who they really need: each other.
Mariama J. Lockington's In the Key of Us is a lyrical ode to music camp, the rush of first love, and the power of one life-changing summer.
# of Pages: 368
Book Binding: Hardcover
Year of Publication: 2022
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: en
ISBN: 9780374314101
Mariama J. Lockington is a writer, educator, and transracial adoptee living in the United States. She holds a Masters in Education from Lesley University and has taught in various schools and community-based organizations. As a Black and Korean adoptee, Lockington draws on her personal experiences to explore themes of identity, belonging, and race in her writing. In addition to In the Key of Us, she has written poetry, essays, and short stories that have been published in various literary journals. Lockington is a passionate advocate for social justice and uses her writing to shed light on important issues and amplify marginalized voices.