Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero

July 1, 2020

Gr 3-7-Isaiah Dunn is a 10-year-old boy who loves writing poetry. He develops a severe case of writer's block after his father's death leads to his mother's depression and his family's housing instability. Isaiah is trying to keep a low profile at school, but clashes with a classmate keep landing him in the principal's office. He's forced to take a mediation class with his school enemy. Isaiah tries to learn how to make peace with her as he looks for a way to make money to change his family's situation. His best friend, Sneaky, offers to let him in on his candy-selling side hustle at school. But that doesn't bring in enough money for an apartment, and his mother's depression is getting worse. Isaiah's one comfort is the notebooks full of stories about "Isaiah Dunn, superhero" that his dad left. He's hoping the notebooks will lead him to the help his family needs. VERDICT An accessible story about a child facing loss and home instability. Isaiah is a likable character; readers will identify with his struggle to rise above his family's housing issues to define himself. A great selection for school and public libraries.-Desiree Thomas, Worthington Lib., OH

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Starred review from July 6, 2020
In this heartfelt middle grade debut adapted from “The Rice and Beans Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn,” a short tale in 2017’s Flying Lessons & Other Stories, 10-year-old Isaiah Dunn’s life has been spiraling out of control since his father died four months ago. His mother struggles with alcoholism, his family is in danger of being evicted from the cheap motel they moved into after losing their apartment, and his very real frustrations—being “the only one who gets in trouble,” among others—are causing problems at school. The Black boy’s only comfort comes in his father’s notebook of stories featuring a superheroic, fictionalized version of Isaiah. Determined to earn the money needed for a new apartment, he tries his hand at selling candy to classmates and sweeping up hair at a barbershop, while quietly connecting with his father’s stories through his own emerging talents as a poet and writer. Baptist offers an age-appropriate look at burgeoning homelessness without an overly neat ending, starring an indomitable protagonist who confronts bullies and faces his own flaws. Isaiah’s optimism, drive, and loyalty to friends and family make him a hero to cheer for and lend a feeling of hope to this exploration of difficult topics. Ages 8–10. Agent: Gabrielle Barnes, Diction Media Group.

July 15, 2020
Grinding privation itself is the main character as much as it is the mise-en-sc�ne for the protagonist of Baptist's debut novel. Each chapter is a calendar-date vignette of hardship for the eponymous character, a young Black boy living with his 4-year-old sister and their mother, who experiences depression-driven alcoholism. They share a smoke-smelling hotel room, having lost their apartment because Isaiah's mother couldn't afford the rent in their working-class neighborhood. Each date details the insults and injuries financial difficulty heaps on poetry-loving Isaiah, from worries over housing insecurity and his family's visits to the food pantry to the socio-economically insensitive writing prompts the teacher assigns ("My world is a good and happy place") and Isaiah's suspension for justifiably lashing out at a tormentor. What steadies Isaiah through this turmoil is his candy-profiteering best friend and the notebook Isaiah's late father left, in which Isaiah is cast as a superhero who derives his power from bowls of beans and rice. But will they be enough? Expanding the tale from her We Need Diverse Books short story contest winner, "The Beans and Rice Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn," Baptist presents the direness of abject poverty with exquisite empathy. She provides Isaiah with a supportive community that helps as his family's situation fluctuates, giving readers who also experience housing insecurity hope but no promises. She doesn't, however, give them much actual plot to carry them along. Snapshots of a tough childhood. (Fiction. 11-13)

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Starred review from August 1, 2020
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Isaiah Dunn needs a hustle like his best friend Sneaky's candy business, something to get him, his mom, and his little sister out of the smoky motel where they've been living. Things have been tough since his dad died, and his mom has been drowning her sorrow in the bottle instead of working. He finds refuge in an old notebook where his dad had written a story casting Isaiah as a superhero. If only he was. Instead, his own words?the ones that used to flow into poems?are locked in his head, and his frustration over the current state of his life is bubbling over as aggression and getting him in trouble at school. Debut author Baptist has turned her short story from Ellen Oh's Flying Lessons & Other Stories (2017) into an exceptional #OwnVoices novel. Isaiah's experiences as a 10-year-old Black child enrich the narrative, giving it an authenticity that will resonate with or stir empathy in readers. His struggles with grief and poverty are made surmountable by the strong, caring community around him. A school counselor, a librarian, former neighbors, the barber for whom Isaiah sweeps floors, and Isaiah's friends all rally around him in a realistic and heartening show of support that helps him reclaim his voice and become the hero his family needs. An uplifting, affirming story for every collection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)