Author of the Newbery Honor bookCrown: An Ode to the Fresh Cutand National Book Award finalistVictory. Stand!, Derrick Barnes tackles timely issues of race and prejudice in this powerful, nuanced middle grade novel about an accomplished Black boy who strives to be seen as human.

In the small town of Great Mountain, Mississippi, all eyes are on Henson Blayze, a thirteen-year-old football phenom who many have wondered if he was super-human. The predominately white townsfolk have been waiting for Henson to play high-school ball, and now theyre overjoyed to finally possess an elite Black athlete of their own.

Until a horrifying incident forces Henson to speak out about injustice.
Until he says that he might not play football anymore.
Until he quickly learns he isnt as loved by the people as he thought.

In that moment, Hensons town is divided into two chaotic sides when all he wants is justice. Even his best friends and his father cant see eye to eye. When he is told to play ball againor else, Henson must decide whether he was born to entertain people who may not even see him as human, or if hes destined for a different kind of greatness.

Derrick Barness groundbreaking novel masterfully combines a modern-day allegory with classic-style tall tales to weave a compelling story of Americas strange obsession with the Black body, relegated to labor or entertainment. Spanning the 1800s to today, it shows how much has changed over centuries. . . and, at the same time, how little.

Derrick Barnes is a National Book Award Finalist for his graphic novelVictory. Stand!-Raising My Fist For Justice, which also won the YALSA Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award, and a Coretta Scott King Award Author Honor.He is also the author of the critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning picture bookCrown: An Ode to the Fresh Cutwhich received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. In 2020, he became the only author to win the Kirkus Prize twice for theNew York Timesbestseller,I Am Every Good Thing, which also won a Charlotte Huck Award and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor. Derrick is also the creator of theNew York Timesbestselling companion picture books,The King of KindergartenandThe Queen of Kindergarten. He is a native of Kansas City, MO, but currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his enchanting wife, Dr. Tinka Barnes, and their four sons, the Mighty Barnes Brothers.

• Publisher: Viking Books (September 23, 2025)
• Language: English
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781984836755
• Reading age: 10+
• Item Weight: .8 pounds
• Dimensions: 8.3 x 0.7 x 5.5 inches