About this item
Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism -- all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age story for fans of Renee Watson's Piecing Me Together and Ibi Zoboi's American Street.Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor. Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she's worked for. Christy Ottaviano Books
About the Author
Echo Unique Ladadrian Brown's early life was marked by the challenges of growing up in poverty. During her senior year of high school, she lived temporarily with an English teacher who recognized her academic potential. Despite this, a guidance counselor discouraged her aspirations for Dartmouth College, citing her background. Undeterred, Brown attended Dartmouth, wrote for the student newspaper, and earned a bachelor's degree in government in 2006. Under the guidance of David Ford at the Marsh theater in San Francisco, Brown developed her one-woman show, "Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters," which debuted in 2015. The performance addressed various societal and personal challenges, including an incident of racial aggression she faced at Dartmouth. Brown authored two young-adult novels: and which drew upon her experiences and elements of magical realism. At the time of her death, she was working on the novel with actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry, who wrote the screenplay of the Netflix movie of the same name.
