Chatting about this, or other books, can sometimes make it a better time to experience a text. Sometimes, being able to talk through a text can certainly bring a different understanding. But, outsiders reading in isolation cannot be guaranteed that See Me In A Crown will be that window or sliding glass door (Rudine Sims Bishop, 1990) into the life of this particular young lady growing up as one of the few Black, lesbian teens in central IN. Johnson writes them not only a mirror but, hope for acceptance. I’ve talked with enough LGBTQIA+ people in this area enough to know it isn’t easy to live here. I know this happens to everyone: what we bring into a story has an immediate impact on what we take away from it. I picked the book up again last week and had a much different experience with it. This Black high school girl trying to become prom queen in a predominantly white town in Indiana wasn’t it. I wanted something with teeth, with bite that would help me synthesize what I was feeling. I almost made it a quarter of the way through when I stopped reading. While many could have found this book to be a lovely distraction, I couldn’t. I’d received it about a week later and it seemed like inconsequential fluff that I didn’t want to bother with.
It was Covid Times and it didn’t feel right, reading this book about a prom! George Floyd had been murdered on 25 May and this book released on 2 June. Unfortunately, I could not get into this book, and to be honest I really didn’t like it.
I couldn’t focus much so I was reading very little at that time. I was happy to see a YA book by a young, Black woman from Indiana so, I ordered a copy for Kid’s Ink, one of my favorite bookstores. Leah Johnson debuted as a YA Author in 2020 with the release of You Should See Me In A Crown.I remember the book coming out as if it were yesterday.
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