Angie Thomas made her debut with the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning novel, The Hate U Give. Thomas’s novel garnered a number of awards and recognitions including the Coretta Scott King Award for the best novel by an African American author for children and the Michael L. Printz Honor for best novel for teens. As well, The Hate U Give was nominated for the 2018 Carnegie Medal and named to the National Book Awards longlist for Young Adult Literature, and was recently adapted into a major motion picture. Thomas returns now with her highly anticipated second novel, On the Come Up.

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least win her first battle. After all, as the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, she’s got massive shoes to fill. But it’s hard to get your come up when you’re labeled a hoodlum at school, and your fridge at home is empty after your mom loses her job. So Bri pours her anger and frustration into her first song, which goes viral for all the wrong reasons. She soon finds herself at the center of a controversy, portrayed by the media as more menace than MC. With an eviction notice staring her family down, Bri doesn’t just want to make it. She has to. Even if it means becoming the very thing the public has made her out to be. Insightful, unflinching, and full of heart, On the Come Up is an ode to hip hop from one of the most influential literary voices of a generation.

Thomas will be joined in conversation at the event by Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author of Muse of Nightmares.

Price includes a copy of Thomas’s On the Come Up. Books distributed at event.