NEW BOOK| ANGIE THOMAS (@angiecthomas) ‘ON THE COME UP’

By Rishma Dhaliwal • On Education, Reviews, What is New ,

 

“ Through The Hate U Give many of you found your voices.

Now, with On The Come Up, it’s time to make some noise …”

 

Dear Read­er,

Bri, an aspir­ing rap­per and the main char­ac­ter in On the Come Up, likes to take words that res­on­ate with her and work them into raps. If I were to pick one word to describe the past two years, it would have to be sur­real.

Sur­real. One word, two syl­lables.

It’s hard to say how I feel,
Because this has been so sur­real.

I can nev­er thank you all enough for the love and sup­port you’ve shown me and The Hate U Give. For a book that I hoped would find at least one read­er besides my fam­ily, it has been a mind-blow­ing exper­i­ence. You’ve proven to me, to pub­lish­ing, to Hol­ly­wood, and to the world that even when stor­ies are spe­cif­ic to an inten­ded audi­ence, they can still appeal to a mul­ti­tude of people. You embraced Starr and her black girl magic with open arms.

ON THE COME UP

Now I want to intro­duce you to six­teen-year-old Bri. Her story is my love let­ter to those black girls who are often made to feel as if they are some­how both too much and not enough in a world that makes wrong­headed assump­tions about them. Through Starr’s jour­ney, I hoped to inspire them and oth­er young people to use their voices. With On the Come Up, I hope to inspire them to con­tin­ue to speak even when soci­ety doesn’t like the way they do it. Free­dom of speech isn’t neces­sar­ily free, espe­cially when you’re young and black.

This nov­el is also a love let­ter to hip-hop. When I couldn’t find myself in books, I found myself in the rhymes writ­ten by MCs who looked like me and shared my exper­i­ences. These uncon­ven­tion­al poets were my her­oes, and are the her­oes for mil­lions of young people.

I hope you enjoy Bri’s story. Hip-hop is her sword and, ulti­mately, her dreams are her shield.

Through The Hate U Give many of you found your voices. Now, with On the Come Up, it’s time to make some noise.

With all my heart,

Angie Thomas

http://www.angiethomas.com/

‘On The Come Up’ is avail­able From 7th Feb­ru­ary 2019

#ONTHECOMEUP • @WalkerBooksYA• @WalkerBooksUK

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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About Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal
Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless. Currently working in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media knowledge to I am Hip Hop and other projects by No Bounds.