Böcker av Joiya Morrison-Efemini

Like carving stone, DARKER SISTER sculpts the experiences of one American woman into effigies impossible to forget. DARKER SISTER extracts the splinters left by second-class citizenship and whittles them down to righteous anger, tolerant teaching and, finally; miraculously, forgiveness. This collection displays on a mantle of faith the acceptance that racial restoration may not happen on this side of eternity. Still, it strives. Morrison-Efemini tells her children, "You can do hard things," so she expects her readers to as well - to identify whether they fit the descriptions. Challenging us all to find ourselves on the wrong side of the page and to flip ourselves over to the light.

In this Novel-in-Verse, tragedy uproots Iris and her sisters, all named after flowers, from the solid ground of middle-class life and plants them, unsupervised, in the rocky terrain of low-income housing. In a world where rain falls only on the privileged, Liam, a student who attends the elite private school directly across the street, proves refreshing as a summer gale, gushing joy into the sisters'' lives. Further nurtured by Ma Moore, a church elder who sprinkles the Flower sisters with spiritual wisdom, Iris embraces her Heavenly Father with steadfast urgency.But when a student takes a hopeless leap from the school roof, Iris withers under the scorching realization that everything she thought she knew about privilege-and God-lies crippled. Petrified Flowers is the anthem of one African-American girl straddling three worlds. It is a song of hope, a triumph of faith, and a resounding refrain of the Father''s eternal love.