Hi, I'm Kitty Feldy.
We are counting down to Book Club for Kids 10th anniversary by revisiting our top 10 episodes from the past decade.
This week is number eight, an episode we aired back during the pandemic in 2020.
It's Angie Thomas's Tale of Fame and Family on the Come -Up.
Give a listen. It's the Book Club for Kids!
The Book Club for Kids!
It's the Book Club for Kids!
It's the Book Club for Kids podcast!
Hi, I'm Kitty Felde.
Today it's a book for older kids, On the Comeup, by Angie Thomas.
Our main character is Bree, an aspiring rap star.
Our readers from West education campus in Washington DC say Brri herself gets a bad rap from people.
You know a lot of people label her as a hoodlum but I would I don't think I would label her as a hoodlum.
She maybe looks bottled up but she had something underneath her which is what we uncovered in the book.
Brri lives in a tough neighborhood.
I live on the east side of the garden where the houses are nicer the homeowners are older and the gunshots aren't as frequent.
The Maple Grove projects are a 15 minute walk away on the west side, or as Grandma calls it, that old rough side.
That's our celebrity reader, actress Tali Johnson.
Our writer Angie Thomas answers questions from our readers and has some words of advice to would be writers.
If you write, congratulations.
You're a writer. If you can tell stories, you're good enough.
This is the Book Club for Kids, the show where kids talk about books.
We'll tell you how you can be on the show a little later on, but first let's meet our readers.
Hello my name is Alexis.
Hi my name is Denay.
And my name is Heaven.
We are eighth graders at West Education campus in Washington, D .C.
OK, well let's start off with talking about the book itself.
Who wants to tell me what it's about?
So the book is about a girl named Brianna, and basically she's just having rough times at home, But she's basically a come -up so she wants to be a rapper.
And her father was a rapper, a underground rapper before he died, so she has some really big shoes to fill, so yeah.
How would we describe Brie?
I mean, if you saw her in the hallway, what would you say?
Okay, Brie is a young black lady.
She's 16 and she has family issues.
Her mom lost her job.
her dad died and her aunt is selling drugs.
And Bree is very determined, because even though she goes through a lot of things at home she don't let that stop her from what she wants to do and that's rapping.
I feel like if I saw her in the hallway, she would look like, she wouldn't have all the good stuff, but she would still have some stuff.
I feel like she would have on some old black with a hoodie.
like I just feel like she would have on a hoodie on her head.
I would say if I seen Bree in the hallway.
You know a lot of people would label her as a hoodlum, but I don't think I would label her as a hoodlum.
I think maybe like, she maybe looks bottled up, but she has something underneath her, which is what we uncovered in the book, so.
Well, let's talk about who Bree really is versus who she's presenting to the world.
talk about that contrast I would say the contrast between who she's presenting to the world so she um put out a song and it got famous but it wasn't for they labeled her as basically a hoodlum like I said before but that's not who she really is she's really going through a lot and she's from a certain place so people might label her as that but they don't really get to know her so it's like people don't understand because they have been through, what she's been through.
She's really is trying to be what she can.
She's trying to help her and her family out because every time she go home, there's no food in the refrigerator.
And she wants to help her brother and stuff.
The difference is that Bree wants to be a rapper.
And how she raps is not what people really think of her.
she's different in a way of like, she got more responsibilities, she has gone home before without no heat, no food or anything and many people don't know that because of how she presented herself.
If they know who she really is in the inside, they would not put labels on her, they wanna say hoodlum.
First time she battled the boy, he was just coming at her and was talking about her dad and stuff and I felt like she felt a certain type of way, so she didn't rap back in the first round.
But when they saw that she came back real hard and she won that, they was like, oh, so she really do got talent and stuff.
And they started to like, like her music and stuff.
She put out the song, her aunt wasn't too happy about it because she was talking about her lifestyle and stuff.
Here's a scene from the book where Bree describes her life.
Our celebrity reader is actress Tally Johnson.
The Maple Grove projects are a whole different world.
I live on the east side of the Garden, where the houses are nicer, the homeowners are older, and the gunshots aren't as frequent.
The Maple Grove projects are a 15 minute walk away on the West Side, or as grandma calls it, that ol' rough side.
It's on the news more, and so many of the houses look like nobody should live in them.
But it's kinda like saying one side of the deaf star is safer than the other.
It's still the deaf star.
At Maple Grove, six three -story buildings sit close enough to the freeway that Aunt Pooh says they used to go on the rooftops and throw rocks at the cars.
Badasses. There was a seventh building but it burned down a few years ago.
And instead of rebuilding it, the state tore down.
Now there's a grassy field and it's place where kids go to play.
The playground is for junkies.
What up, little law?
A guy shouts from inside a raggedy car as I cross the parking lot.
Never seen him in my life, but I wave. I'll always be my dad's daughter if nothing else.
He should be here. Maybe if he was, I wouldn't be wondering, how are we gonna make it?
Says Jay doesn't have a job.
I swear! We can never just be good.
Something always happens, either we barely got food or this thing got shut off.
It's always something.
We can't have any power either.
I mean, think about it.
All these people I've never met have way more control over my life than I've ever had.
If some crown hadn't killed my dad, he'd be a big rap star and money wouldn't even be an issue.
If some drug dealer hadn't sold my mom her first hit, she could have gotten her degree already and would have had a good job.
If that cop hadn't murdered that boy, people wouldn't have rioted, the daycare wouldn't have burned down, and the church wouldn't have let Jay go.
All these folks I've never met became gods over my life.
Now I got to take that power back.
Well would you identify with Bree in that way, in that people misjudge who you are by the outside versus who you really are on the inside?
I would say yes is different, because I see myself as goofy and stuff.
If I'm walking in the hall, someone says, I always look sad, but I don't think so.
They judge me on the exterior, when they haven't really gotten to know me.
So people see the outside of you, and they're like, oh, I know her.
I don't want to be her friend, or I want to be her friend.
she's pretty or something like that, but they don't really get to know you like you could be really pretty but you're a horrible person.
When I first came to this school I was actually like from like you can say the hood, but I had a hard time with like communicating the people because here they like seem so bougie, but they're really not when you know them and it's like they gone through different experiences than me, so it's like I have to learn how to control myself, and the way I walked or something, they just like, oh, well, she from the hood, she from south -east, that's not really how I label myself.
I'm just a cool person.
I don't really like drama, but once it comes my way, then sometimes I let it fly, but other than that, they just be like, oh, she just want the trouble and stuff.
I don't. I want to make the best of myself.
Well, how do people get to know people?
I mean, how do we know that the perceptions we have of the other people in the hallway, for example, are who we think they are?
I mean, how do we get to know who the real people are?
If you just talk to somebody, if you have a certain beef with them or anything and you just feel like, OK, well, now I don't know what she's going through, so I should just talk to her.
If you come to me with a smile, then, like, we're not going to be beefing.
I don't got time for that.
So if you talk and say hello, it can brighten up somebody's mood and you can just go beyond the hello if they will let you.
I feel like I agree with what Denae says a lot, and I just want to add on.
So another way that you can get to know somebody is like, don't take what other people say about them and try to make that who they are.
Like if they haven't done anything to you personally you can't let other people tell you who you can or can't be friends with.
So you got to actually talk to people and get to know them.
Hey, let's talk a little bit about the rap in the book.
Good raps. Bad raps.
I mean, I'm no judge.
You guys tell me. The raps were good to me because she actually has expressed herself do rap If she don't let nobody stop that or like even when her aunt didn't think she should put out the, her song she still put it out anyway because it's how she feel and nobody really knows how she feel so she wanted to put it out there.
Like when people go to therapy or something they be like draw down, dance it out, or rap it out, or sing it out because what she did is great, she letting all her anger out.
When you hold it up one day you can just like explode, like all of it just come out and you just feel a certain type of way like you don't want to be on Earth anymore, but what she is doing she is just letting it out and she does not want to be angry anymore, so she just wrapping it out.
Do you guys have some questions for Angie Thomas?
Did you have any experiences that made you want to write this book or has inspired you to write this book?
And did music play a big role in your life?
I was inspired to write The Hate U Give and On The Come Up by some situations that I experienced myself as a young person.
With The Hate U Give I experienced a similar life to Star in the sense that I went to a mostly white upper class private school and lived in a mostly black poor neighborhood and I often found myself being two different people in two different worlds.
With On The Come and so I took that from my own life and gave that story to my main character, Briana.
Music played a huge role in both novels.
I think it's a little more obvious and on the come up, but with the hate you give, if nothing else, Tupac's music and his message was a huge influence and inspiration for me as I wrote that novel.
So I make long playlists whenever I write my novels.
They are such a crucial part for my writing process.
you know, I cannot imagine trying to write without having music.
Why did you choose to write a story about a young black girl who's coming up, instead of writing a young black girl that's already up there?
It would have probably been easy to write a book about a young lady who's already made it.
But I wanted to really speak to the young people out there who want to make it.
Whether that's as a rapper or whatever their dream may be, and just show them that it's possible to decide to be yourself and stay true to yourself, even while chasing your dreams. I wanted Brianna to be someone that young people could relate to, because let's be honest, how many of us are famous rappers right now, you know?
So it was important to show the struggle at times, but also the hope and the drive that she has.
When you were writing this book, did your words like just flow out on the paper?
Like was it easy to write it or did you have to take time out and actually think about your plot?
You know I wish I could say that every single time that I write the words just flow but they don't.
There have been instances, especially with On the Come Up, where that book was just a struggle at times.
I was just coming off of the success of The Hate U Give.
And there were so many fears and doubts that I had that made it so hard to write on the come up.
And it was a struggle.
So I got in my own way, is what I tell people all the time.
I was my biggest critic.
Everyone says the second book is the hardest book to write.
And I'm seeing that now, because now that I'm working on my third book, it's like, okay, I proved to myself that I can write another book.
storyteller. What keeps you motivated and what keeps you writing?
A lot of things help me keep going.
One is my desire to tell stories.
I could not imagine not being a storyteller.
It's one of those things where I would probably lose my mind if I didn't tell stories.
It's just a part of me.
Another thing that keeps me going is knowing that so many young people love my books and my words and my stories.
And that it in some ways can help changed their lives.
I've had so many young people say that my books are the first books that they've read from beginning to end, or they're the first books where they've seen themselves in, and that's a huge inspiration for me.
And three, knowing that I hopefully am inspiring a new generation of young writers, I have to admit, I was terrified to become a writer.
What I wish someone would have told me back then and what I want to tell young people now especially, is that if you write, congratulations you're a writer.
If you can tell stories you're good enough.
The main thing is telling stories and telling them well.
And to tell them, well, what do you need to do?
You need to practice and you need to study.
And how do you practice writing?
You write. How do you study writing?
You read. It goes hand in hand so don't let yourself get in the way.
The thing you're afraid to do is probably the thing you need to do.
Do you think people have an attitude about rap?
Some people, they think rap is the devil music and stuff, but it's not the devil's music.
It comes from your heart.
Some people, they let out their heart in their music and they're helping other people who may be going through the same situations as them, they're helping them in their music.
So I feel like that kind of music should not be having an attitude towards.
So, yeah. Some people don't actually know the meaning behind some of the lyrics, so they might have an attitude or feel like it's unnecessary.
But like having said, it's some actual good songs that have meanings and can help other people with problems. Do any of you guys write any rap lyrics?
Have you? I do write lyrics.
Cause sometimes when I do get bored and I start to like write stuff, I just started to rap it out.
Even when I'm doing a test or something, I don't know.
But if the book is really boring, I'd try to jazz it up and like rap it out.
I don't know. So yeah, you got to be lit.
Talk to me about the relationship between rap and poetry.
Where's the connection?
Where's it different?
I feel like rap and poetry are the same thing.
Because it has a deeper meaning than what it sounds like.
and it helps people understand or make them more confident in their self.
Rap and poetry is similar but I'll say poetry is more like you talk it out and you show all your emotions and rap is more like you just expressing yourself on a beat.
So I understand you have a podcast. Tell me about it, would ya?
Okay, so our podcast was to basically inform children of color about their background because the textbooks, the history textbooks, they don't teach us about our basically our background and how we were kings and queens.
So we just wanted to let those children know that they are loved and they are wanted.
And also for many other children that are of color as well, that they can learn about our history as well.
We will include a link to that podcast on our website which is bookclubforkids .org.
All right, I think it's time, you guys.
I have to ask the hardest question on planet Earth, which is what is your favorite book and why?
My favorite book is, well it's a series.
It's called the Blueford series, but my favorite book out of this series, I would say is Lost and Found.
It's about a girl who basically her dad hasn't been there in, I think they said, 15 years.
I like the series because I feel like it's relatable And it's interesting I'm the type of person if I don't get into it on the first couple of pages I'm not gonna read it because I don't like to skip through stuff.
So I got into the first couple of pages and she has so many responsibilities.
She still goes to school.
And she has a lot of stuff going on so I feel like it's relatable.
It's called The Day Tyron Got Shot.
and it's about this boy who got shot from a police officer, and it gives different perspectives on, like, Tyjon, his friends, the cops, children.
And I just like how it don't focus on one perspective and listens to everybody and what they have to say.
My favorite book is called When We Collided.
It was about this girl and this boy.
What makes me like the book is that the problems that they had, they solved it and the bond that they shared was really great.
It made me cry at the end.
What about you Angie Thomas got a favorite book?
My favorite book, it goes back to when I was a kid, it was my favorite book then and it still is.
And it's a book called Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred T.
Taylor. I first read that book when I was about nine years old.
And it was the first time I read a book about a Black girl in Mississippi, and that really did something for me because I was not used to seeing that in a book.
And if nothing else, it showed me that, wow, Black girls in Mississippi can have stories about them as well.
And I was so just in awe of the character of Cassie.
She was really this little hero.
She was a superhero in her own right.
So, I was inspired by Cassie's family when I wrote Star's family in The Hate U Give.
I even got Star's father's name from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
She describes, Cassie describes her mom as being a disrupting maverick.
And that felt so fitting as a name for Star's father, Maverick.
We'll have a list of everybody's favorite book at our website, bookclubforkids .org.
In fact, we have lots and lots and lots of book suggestions to help you find the perfect ebook or audiobook to download now from your public library during this time when schools are closed.
And did you know that if you want to be on the book club for kids you can do it from your living room?
All you need is your smartphone.
Record yourself on the Voice Memo app telling us your first name, the city where you live, the name of your favorite book and why you love it.
and then email the file to us at kitty at bookclubforkids .org.
That's K -I -T -T -Y at bookclubforkids .org.
Or you can just click the Put Me On The Show button at our website, bookclubforkids .org, for more information.
And, teachers, by the way, we are collecting recommendations from students around the world and we would love to hear from your homebound kids on the show.
Thanks this week to producer Ilse Setzerl, Brandon Baker composed our theme and misstein counter -designed our logo, and thanks to a writer Angie Thomas this week and our celebrity reader Tali Johnson, and thanks to our readers from West Education Campus in Washington DC, Danae, Alexis and Heaven, and their teacher Nylah Austin.
This episode is funded in part by the Jack Kent Cook foundation dedicated to advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need.
We have a free newsletter for teachers, parents, and librarians with free learning resources you can use at home and tips about how to turn kids into lifelong readers.
You can sign up at the website bookclubforkids .org.
And that's also where you can find curriculum free of charge for a number of the episodes.
And if you are looking for a terrific mystery podcast you can listen to as a family, check out the Fina Mendoza Mysteries.
It's a family story set on Capitol Hill, and we just released a brand new bonus episode that takes you backstage during the taping of the show.
I'm Kitty Felde. Thanks again for listening.
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