Angel of Greenwood

by Randi Pink

Overview

A piercing, unforgettable love story set in Greenwood, Oklahoma, also known as the “Black Wall Street,” and against the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Isaiah Wilson is, on the surface, a town troublemaker, but is hiding that he is an avid reader and secret poet, never leaving home without his journal. Angel Hill is a loner, mostly disregarded by her peers as a goody-goody. Her father is dying, and her family’s financial situation is in turmoil.


Though they’ve attended the same schools, Isaiah never noticed Angel as anything but a dorky, Bible toting church girl. Then their English teacher offers them a job on her mobile library, a three-wheel, two-seater bike. Angel can’t turn down the money and Isaiah is soon eager to be in such close quarters with Angel every afternoon.

But life changes on May 31, 1921 when a vicious white mob storms the Black community of Greenwood, leaving the town destroyed and thousands of residents displaced. Only then, Isaiah, Angel, and their peers realize who their real enemies are.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250768483
Publisher:	Feiwel & Friends
Publication date:	01/12/2021
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	530,160
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Randi Pink is the author of Girls Like Us, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2019, and Into White, also published by Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan. Her most recent novel, Angel of Greenwood, was Junior Library Guild selection, and was praised as having a "deep love of community and home," by National Public Radio. She lives with her family and two rescue dogs in Birmingham, Alabama. iamrandipink.com
Randi Pink is the author of Angel of Greenwood, praised by NPR as a story “American kids need to know”; Girls Like Us, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2019, and Into White, also published by Feiwel and Friends. She lives with her family in Birmingham, Alabama.

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/11/2021

This harrowing fictional account of Black community action centers the eve of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Angel Hill, 16, is a quiet churchgoing dancer with a passion for helping others and a love for Booker T. Washington. Beneath his mischievous exterior, 17-year-old Isaiah Wilson is a poet who admires W.E.B. Du Bois. Angel is beloved by all of Greenwood, a town of Black excellence across the Frisco tracks from white Tulsa, Okla., while Isaiah is known for hanging out with the wrong crowd. Paired together for a summer job manning a mobile library, the two immediately begin debating the philosophies of “tolerant” Washington and more “active” Du Bois. They also instantly fall in love: Isaiah with Angel’s dance and compassion, she with his poetry and exuberance, and both with the other’s undying devotion to Greenwood, America’s Black Wall Street. Life is disrupted, though, when white Tulsans invade Greenwood and set the town ablaze. Rich in its discussion of Black literature, this novel brilliantly juxtaposes a lighthearted story of young Black love with a deft reminder that such beauty has often been violently seized from Black people, and that these instances deserve remembrance. Ages 12–up. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

A Junior Library Guild Selection

A BuzzFeed "Historical Fiction Book That Will Start 2021 Off Right"

“The romantic love in [Angel of Greenwood] is big and beautiful and pure. And beyond the love between two teenagers, there's a deep love of community and home. Greenwood feels so wholesome, so idyllic, and when the hate breaks through, it will break your heart....I hope teachers assign this in schools and librarians turn it face-out on the shelves. American kids need to know this history to be good citizens.” —National Public Radio (NPR)

"Rich in its discussion of Black literature, this novel brilliantly juxtaposes a lighthearted story of young Black love with a deft reminder that such beauty has often been violently seized from Black people, and that these instances deserve remembrance." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The tragedy of Greenwood is made especially palpable here not only in the depiction of the violence but also in the portrayal of the thriving, successful, neighborly place that it is before the massacre. [Isaiah and Angel's] romance gives a touch of softness to what ultimately feels like a timely cautionary tale for the nation’s current racial reckoning." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"The climax of the book is utterly devastating, tragic, and heartbreaking. Pink reclaims untold stories from the past, giving names and faces to the lives stolen a century ago in moving and vivid detail, while still managing to engender hope and survival, a message that will certainly hit differently for different readers." —Culturess

From the Publisher

01/22/2021

Gr 9 Up—The love story of Isaiah Wilson and Angel Hill begins in 1921, 12 days before the Tulsa race massacre. World War I is still in the memories of the residents of Greenwood, the section of Tulsa known as Black Wall Street. Isaiah is not thought highly of in the community because of the people he chooses as friends. The community loves Angel and is always looking out for her. The seed for Isaiah and Angel's young love is planted when they are asked to work on a teacher's summer literacy project. Their relationship is tested by the community busybodies, but the ultimate test comes during the early morning hours of June 1, 1921, when white citizens of Tulsa set fire to the homes and businesses of Greenwood. Each chapter tells the story through the perspective of different characters, mostly alternating between Angel and Isaiah. The setting of the 1921 Tulsa massacre is a powerful and ambitious choice; however, most of the story is spent slowly building up the relationship between the two main characters. Their relationship is believable, but few details of the setting make it feel like 1921. The pace picks up as readers arrive at the early morning hours of June 1. The story ends abruptly, leaving readers with questions about the fate of Greenwood, its citizens, and the young couple. The author's concise afterword offers some additional information. VERDICT Readers looking to familiarize themselves with the Tulsa race massacre will find more love story than history lesson in this historical novel.—Michelle Kornberger, Havenview M.S., Memphis

School Library Journal