IT DOESN’T TAKE A GENIUS

9781644420027

Pub date: 04/13/2021

$17.95

Hardcover w/ dust jacket

303 pages

Ages 10 to 14

5.5” x 8.25” (W x H)

Inspired by the Six Foot Pictures feature film Boy Genius, this coming-of-age tale explores the intersection between self and community and the complexity of Black identity. Emmett Charles, a young, gifted boy, wonders—if he’s not who he always thought he was, who exactly can he be?

SUMMARY

Emmett Charles and his older brother, Luke, have always been “Batman and Robin,” though they’re quick to bicker about who’s who. Spending the summer at a historic Black summer camp seems like a wonderful adventure for the two to share, but since Luke is there as a junior counselor, he seems to spend all of his time being everyone else’s big brother and ignoring Emmett.

As Luke seems to be moving on to new adventures, Emmett struggles in unexpected ways, especially in swim class and the “It Takes a Village” entrepreneurship class. Without his brother for support, Emmett works to build a new crew of “superfriends,” who help him plan something spectacular for the end-of-camp awards night and celebration.  Along the way, Emmett learns that no matter what, there can be many ways to define family.

CONTRIBUTOR BIOS
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is the award-winning author of Two Naomis, Naomis Too, and Eighth Grade Superzero, which received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and was named an Amazon Best Book of the Month, a Notable Book for a Global Society by the International Reading Association, a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People by the National Council for the Social Studies and CBC, and included in the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA) Reading Circle Catalog. She is also the author of Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins (Quarto Kids) and Above and Beyond: Nasa’s Journey to Tomorrow (Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan) and editor of the forthcoming We Need Diverse Books anthology, The Hero Next Door.