🏆國家圖書獎青少年小說獲獎作品🏆
🏆普拉・貝爾普雷獎🏆
🏆普林玆文學獎🏆
獲獎詩人 Elizabeth Acevedo 透過擂台詩 (Slam Poetry)，強烈絢爛的文字，道出非洲拉丁族群的成長故事。
Xiomara Batista 成長在紐約哈林區，從小，她覺得自己和非洲拉丁的族群，始終無法在這個社會為自己發聲。尤其當她進入青春期，身體曲線逐漸顯露，只得透過暴力保護自己。但Xiomara 並不甘於此，她將不滿與憤怒，全都灌注到文字上，一遍一遍地，像祈禱般，對自己朗誦著這些詩詞。
母親虔誠地要求 Xiomara 遵守教會的規訓，更讓 Xiomara 壓抑不已，認為自己永遠不能透漏自己的真心話，當然也不可能告訴家人，自己加入了學校的擂台詩社團。即便膽戰心驚，害怕母親會發現，但 Xiomara 內心無比渴望能透過詩詞，為自己和自己的族群發聲，讓更多人關注自己在乎的事。Xiomara 不畏恐懼與艱難，仍堅持站上擂台，用詩詞的力量，道出真實。
Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award!
Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth.
Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.
With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.
Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.
