The Story of my Anger counts for the “school” square on CBR17 Bingo.
I was immediately drawn to The Story of My Anger because Yuli’s pose on the cover is so defiant and powerful, and I knew I wanted to read her story. Told in verse, this book follows Yuli and her group of friends who are trying to prevent the books that have allowed them to be seen in curriculum from being banned. Especially in today’s sociopolitical landscape and how many books are being banned these days, this book is incredibly important.
Yuli is a young Black girl who, for so long, didn’t see herself in the books she needed to read for school, but her current English teacher has made efforts to include books like For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, and others that centered BIPOC voices and experiences. When the board of education starts saying all the books are inappropriate and removing them from the classroom library, Yuli decides to fight back by performing guerrilla theater to encourage people to sign a petition to return the books to the classroom and curriculum.
I love books that give Black girls space to be messy and angry, but still have softness and love because misogynoir is very often a thing, as well as the adultification of young Black girls. This book does a lot to keep away from that by showing Yuli’s family and friends and all the ways they support each other. I also especially loved Yuli’s relationship with her older brother who has been participating in sit-ins and protests at his college after they closed a student union for marginalized students. The way he roots for her and shares his own experiences with her really showed how seeing it can make it continue for all different causes.
All around this was an excellent book that gave me so many feelings. I even went out of my way to find For Colored Girls, which is a choreopoem, and watch the Tyler Perry movie because of how much that book was mentioned for how it impacted Yuli. I highly recommend picking up The Story of My Anger, especially if you get hope from seeing the ways people protest and do the work (and maybe it’ll inspire you too!)
[I received an advance copy from Netgalley for review purposes; The Story of My Anger releases September 16, 2025]