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HOW THE BOOGEYMAN BECAME A POET 
πšƒπš˜πš—πš’ π™ΊπšŽπš’πšπš‘ π™Ήπš›
February 6, 2024

FTC Disclosure: Thank you to @epicreads @tonykeithjr @storygramtours for my #gifted review copy. 
All thoughts are my own. 

πŸ’Ύπš†πš‘πšŠπš πš’πš πš’πšœ: 
Poet, writer, and hip-hop educator Tony Keith Jr. makes his debut with a powerful YA memoir in verse, tracing his journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, and homophobia to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry.

Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, George M. Johnson, and Jacqueline Woodson.

πŸ’½πš†πš‘πšŠπš 𝙸 πšπš‘πš˜πšžπšπš‘πš:
Tony Keith’s genre bending memoir was masterful. This YA memoir, covers his childhood but spends the most time covering his last year of high school and freshman year in college, 1999-2000. It is written in verse and is interjected with poems side-by-side with images of the poems from the author’s original,  lined, three-hole notepaper, scratch outs and all, such an authentic aesthetic. The new chapter pages each have that copy machine black corner too… I’m obsessed with it for some reason.  Along with the poems we also get AIM chat messages. I could hear the noise while I was reading. 
Even though we live in invariably different lives- reading this reassured me that others feel the way I do. That’s why I love reading memoirs. They continue to teach me not just more about others and the world but more about myself. 

πŸ“πšπ™Έπšˆπ™»
All Boys Aren’t Blue meets Poet X
Epistolary novels
Music references
Turn of the century (haha)