Radiant

Written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Narrated by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

A historical middle-grade novel in verse from multiple Coretta Scott King winner Vaunda Micheaux Nelson.

As school begins in 1963, Cooper Dale wrestles with what it means to “shine” for a black girl in a predominantly white community near Pittsburgh. Set against the historic backdrop of the Birmingham church bombing, the Kennedy assassination, and Beatlemania, Radiant is a finely crafted novel in verse about race, class, faith, and finding your place in a loving family and a complicated world.  

Cooper’s primary concern is navigating fifth grade, where she faces both an extra-strict teacher and the bullying of Wade Carter, the only child of a well-to-do white family, whose home Cooper’s mother cleans for extra income. How can she shine when her mother works for the meanest boy in school? To make matters worse, Cooper quietly wishes she could be someone else.

It’s not all bad, though. Cooper and her beloved older sister have fallen for the Beatles, and Cooper is thrilled to have something special they can share. And what she learns about her British idols adds new complexity to Cooper’s feelings about race.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 7, 2025
• ISBN: 9798217019076

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson is the author of The Book Itch, as well as three Coretta Scott King Award-winning books: No Crystal Stair, Bad News for Outlaws, and Almost to Freedom. She is a former youth services librarian in New Mexico. Visit her online at vaundanelson.com.

Reviews for Radiant

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful book that just flows -- open it and fall in. I love Cooper's inherent fairness, her empathy, her thoughtful reactions, her joy. The moments when she breathes in goodness to deal with the hard crap that is endemic racism. The moments when she feels a pure and shining love for her family. Her relationship with a hard but fair teacher. It's a book that's packed with learning how to handle yourself in 5th grade. It's a book about finding personal ways to shine. Radiant in being as well as name.

[sjgirl-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Radiant, set in 1964, is told in verse, nothing flowery or intimidating, it reads simply and quickly while still hitting the emotions in all the right places.

As an adult reader I wouldn’t have minded a bit more historical detail, but I think for the intended middle-grade audience, this was just about right in the way it touched on historical events (the church bombing in Alabama, JFK’s assassination) in a way that didn’t get bogged down in long dense info dumps that could cause a kid reader’s interest to wane.

Cooper, our sweetheart of a main character, is the target of racism to the extent where at times she wishes she were white, all of the moments related to that are a tough read as they should be, and still sadly relevant. There were a few moments in Cooper’s dealings with a racist classmate where I did wonder whether there are many kids or even adults for that matter, who would handle that with as much I guess, generosity, as Cooper does, but regardless of how realistic that would be for most flawed human beings to live up to, Cooper’s certainly a good example to aspire to, even if you can’t get there quite as consistently as she does.

I liked that a certain situation was presented as more complicated than just being entirely about Cooper’s empathy for someone else, something like that could make anyone contemplate something similar happening in their own life and this did a good job of showing how anxiety inducing those kinds of thoughts can be no matter your age.

All I’ve talked about here so far are the more difficult things Cooper’s going through over the course of this novel, but the author does include some nice moments with a teacher, friends, and with Cooper’s family (some involving a love for the Beatles), that add enough light for this to feel like a balanced read.