Product Description ★ “Powerful and vulnerable"—Booklist, starred reviewEcho Brown testifies to the disappointments and triumphs of a Black first-generation college student in this exploration of the first year experience.There are many watchers and they are always white. That’s the first thing Echo notices as she settles into Dartmouth College. Despite graduating high school in Cleveland as valedictorian, Echo immediately struggles to keep up in demanding classes. Dartmouth made many promises it couldn't keep. The campus is not a rainbow-colored utopia where education lifts every voice. Nor is it a paradise of ideas, an incubator of inclusivity, or even an exciting dating scene. But it might be a portal to different dimensions of time and space—only accessible if Echo accepts her calling as a Chosen One and takes charge of her future by healing her past. This remarkable challenge demands vulnerability, humility, and the conviction to ask for help without sacrificing self-worth.In mesmerizing personal narrative and magical realism, Echo Brown confronts mental illness, grief, racism, love, friendship, ambition, self-worth, and belonging as they steer the fates of first-generation college students on Dartmouth’s campus. The Chosen One is an unforgettable coming-of-age story that bravely unpacks the double-edged college transition—as both catalyst for old wounds and a fresh start. Review Praise for The Chosen One: "Instantly enthralling, Echo Brown crafts a heartrending and triumphant coming-of-age memoir . . . She lays bare cracking wounds of mental illness but finishes with the healing balm of friendship, mentorship, and belonging. Her narrative soars with rawness, magic, and prophetic vision. Echo is the voice of legions of first generation college students."―Miesha Headen, Loganberry Books“Powerful and vulnerable. Brown paints a realistic portrait touched with fantasy in this story of a young girl struggling to adapt to a new culture while also acknowledging the harsh truth of privilege and how it impacts academic success. This meaningful account will speak to many students who are both eager about and burdened by being their family’s First. ”―Booklist, starred review"The story asks readers to examine the various intersections of their own identities as they reflect upon the circumstances that shape Echo’s reality . . .A hopeful conclusion brings a sense of clarity and confidence that Echo and her crew will defy the many odds stacked against them." ―BCCB, starred review"A testimony to starting from the bottom to doing the unimaginable while trauma lingers. The Chosen One is an influential novel encouraging healing, perseverance, and candid conversation about educational disparities. Authentic, thought-provoking, and timely—Echo did it again."―Erica Marks, Cleveland Public Library"Weaves magical realism and mentions of Star Wars mythology into the collegiate experience of Echo, a Black student whose aim to succeed at Dartmouth becomes a quest to overcome personal trauma and broad cosmic forces. Echo’s internality is rife with tender ruminations—on independence, fear of failure, and mental health—explored with vigor alongside themes of healing, forgiveness, and the human need to be and feel loved."―Publishers Weekly"By adding a dash of magical realism to her real-life experience of being a Black first-generation college student in "The Chosen One," Echo Brown weaves a story that's at once deeply honest and hopeful."―PopSugar About the Author Echo Brown is the award-winning author of Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard, which was named a William C. Morris Award Finalist, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a New York Public Library Best Book of the Year, a CCBC Choice Title, and a Rise: A Feminist Book Project Selection, among other honors. A performer and playwright, Echo created the acclaimed one-woman show Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters. She is a Dartmout

The Chosen One: A First-Generation Ivy League Odyssey

Teen & Young Adult

Brown, Echo

Literature & Fiction

Christy Ottaviano Books

The Chosen One: Triumphs of a Black Girl in the Ivy League

"Just brilliant."―Kirkus Reviews Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism―all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age story for fans of Renee Watson's Piecing Me Together and Ibi Zoboi's American Street.
Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor. 
Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for. 
Christy Ottaviano Books

Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard

Historical Fiction

Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

About the Author\nEcho Brown is an author, performer, and playwright from Cleveland, Ohio. A Dartmouth alumna and the first female college graduate in her family, she is the author of Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard, which the New York Times praised as “a guidebook of survival and wonder.” Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, called Echo’s one-woman show, Black Virgins Are Not For Hipsters, “stunning and powerful.”\nA William C. Morris Award Finalist\n"Brown has written a guidebook of survival and wonder."―The New York Times\n"Just brilliant."―Kirkus Reviews\nHeavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism―all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age story for fans of Renee Watson's Piecing Me Together and Ibi Zoboi's American Street.\nEcho Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor.\nEach day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for.\nChristy Ottaviano Books

Black Girl Unlimited

Square Fish

A moving and unforgettable tale of love and family secrets set in Georgia in the 1940s from visionary Tyler Perry and acclaimed author Echo Brown, based on Perry's original screenplay and Netflix film of the same name. 1947, Georgia. Bayou, a precocious teen with big dreams of escaping the oppressive South, hopes the music running through his blood can save him from him his daunting circumstances. First, he'll have to survive the rage of his alcoholic father, Buster, and the searing criticism of his jealous brother, Willie Earl. Despite these challenges, there lurks a golden voice behind Bayou's bashful demeanor, ready to escape. Leanne, a clever, pretty girl who Bayou grew up with, left last summer a child and returned a woman now desired by every man in town. Troubled by their lives at home, Bayou and Leanne are drawn together, meeting in secret in the sweltering, star-filled Georgia nights. They see something in each other that no one else in their small town can, and they protect each other, until the cruel racism of the South forces Bayou and Leanne to separate and flee the place they call home. What follows is the extraordinary story of two lovers fated to be together but compelled to take different paths. Bayou journeys to Chicago where he follows his dreams of becoming a musician, his love for Leanne never far from his mind. Leanne is caught between the white and black worlds in Boston and eventually marries a white man and passes as a white woman in order to survive. When Bayou and Leanne return to Georgia and reunite, changed to the core by their experiences, they must decide if they can ever be together again and discover if that's even possible in a society bent on keeping them apart.

A Jazzman's Blues: A Novel

Perry, Tyler

United States

Atria Books

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