If You Knew My Name by Lisa Roberts Carter is a free verse novel that initially stood out to me because of the cover. As a high school English teacher, I am always on the lookout for Young Adult books about activism and inequality. I recently read Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds with my students, and many of them loved the format. They thought it was an “easier” read because of the free verse format (even though the ideas were still complex). Since then, I have made it a mission to add more free verse novels to my classroom library. This is why I decided to request If You Knew My Name.
The novel follows Mason, a senior in high school who has dreams of becoming a rapper. He is determined to graduate high school, and after realizing he needs his poetry class to graduate, he begins to be an active participant in the class. The poetry class doesn’t come without its issues. While it is a class on Black Poetry, there are students enrolled who do not believe in CRT or BLM protests. There are even students he suspects joined the class to openly mock and disagree with everything being said. Even so, Mason starts to use the class to work on perfecting his poetry and learning more about himself in the process.
I enjoyed the novel overall, even though I have a few critiques. Let’s get into my thoughts!
If You Knew My Name was released on May 28, 2024.
GENERAL INFO
If You Knew My Name by Lisa Roberts Carter
Published on May 28, 2024
Genres: Novels in Verse, Poetry, Young Adult
Pages: 224
Format: ARC, eBook
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Lisa Roberts Carter’s debut, If You Knew My Name, is a novel-in-verse telling the story of 17-year-old Mason Tyndall— an aspiring rap artist whose mother is a BLM activist. She saw fatal officer-involved shootings as senseless tragedies. He viewed them as trending hashtags — that is, until he almost became one.
Mason Zy’Aire Tyndall has big dreams. Dreams of sick beats, epic mic-drops, sold out stadiums. Mason’s going to be a rap star—and you don’t become a rap star by hitting up BLM protests with your mom or sitting at a desk. Mason wants to get out there and make a name for himself, but he’ll have to graduate high school first. And he can’t do that if he fails his senior year.
Convinced his poetry class is a waste of time, Mason’s teacher helps him see just how valuable a couplet and a rhyme can be. But when an unarmed Black man is killed by the police in his city, tensions start to rise—among the cops, the community, and even Mason’s peers.
Caught in the middle of increasingly violent conflicts, Mason will have to find a way to use his voice for change…and fast.
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While the purpose shown in the book’s blurb is that Mason needs to learn to become a voice for the community, it is not completely clear in the novel. There are times when I felt that there was too much time spent without changing the setting of the story. For example, the first section of the novel focuses on introducing Mason, his friends and family, his passions, etc. Then, after the poetry class began, there was a massive section dedicated to the class and all of the students enrolled.
I did enjoy the conversations Carter created within the poetry class. There were poems from both sides, but I think that young adults reading would be able to see the ignorance in many of the anti-CRT students’ poems. I think these poems are where her character development of Mason really shines. His reactions to the other students’ poems are telling.
However, I wish we could have seen more poems from Mason in the class. I enjoyed the inclusion of other students’ poems; I just wish there could have been more Mason (basically, I wanted the book to be a little longer). I I think this contributed to the pacing issue of the book. This first poetry class section took up a lot of space, and because of all the other views, I didn’t feel Mason’s changes as strongly. As I said above, Carter’s character development in some of these sections is strong, but there isn’t enough of it to justify the massive change in life values Marcus faces.
When I first started reading, I found it really hard to find a rhythm. Because I had trouble finding a rhythm throughout many of the poems, I believe hearing the poems as they were intended would be beneficial. I do not know if an audiobook is in the works, but one is not currently available. This issue got better as the novel progressed. Actually, it was when Mason started his poetry class that I felt the rhythm became more consistent.
These complaints might make it seem like I did not like the book, which is not true. I think this book is extremely important. It tackles issues that many parents, school systems, communities, etc., want to ignore, which is why I believe this should become an essential book in any high school classroom.
Many poems stuck out throughout the novel. The section of the book that included poems about the multiple real-life scenarios that have happened in recent years (George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tamir Rice were three of them) was incredibly powerful. The flow of those poems, in particular, packed a punch. The poem If You Knew My Name, also the title of the book, felt like a perfect conclusion to the novel. It really did stand out.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, even with its flaws, You Knew My Name is a book that needs to be read. I really do think this could have a major impact on any type of reader. I have already requested an order of two copies of this book for my classroom library and added it to the reading recommendations binder I have for my students.
Final Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫