The award-winning author of Bird presents an evocative story in verse that follows a poignant year in the life of a brown child whose community rallies for justice and peace in the aftermath of a police shooting. 35,000 first printing. Illustrations. - (Baker & Taylor)

Illustrations and easy-to-read text express a child's awareness of being filled with deep emotions, from joy to sorrow and anger to compassion, but above all, love. - (Baker & Taylor)

From award-winning author Zetta Elliott and rising star illustrator Noa Denmon comes a beautiful #OwnVoices poetic picture book about a brown child discovering and accepting their emotional landscape. - (McMillan Palgrave)

Caldecott Honor Book
Today Show Best Book for the Holidays
ALA Notable Book for All Ages
ALSC Notable Children's Book
NCTE Notable Poetry Book
Evanston Public Library's Top 100 Great Book for Kids
Nerdy Award Winner for Single Poem Picture Book
Bank Street Best Books of the Year


In this powerful, affirming poem by award-winning author Zetta Elliott, a Black child explores his shifting emotions throughout the year.

There is a place inside of me
a space deep down inside of me
where all my feelings hide.

Summertime is filled with joy—skateboarding and playing basketball—until his community is deeply wounded by a police shooting. As fall turns to winter and then spring, fear grows into anger, then pride and peace.

In her stunning debut, illustrator Noa Denmon articulates the depth and nuances of a child’s experiences following a police shooting—through grief and protests, healing and community—with washes of color as vibrant as his words.

Here is a groundbreaking narrative that can help all readers—children and adults alike—talk about the feelings hiding deep inside each of us.

Zetta Elliott is a black feminist writer of poetry, plays, essays, novels, and stories for children. Her poetry has been published in We Rise, We Resist, We Raise our Voices, and her picture book, Bird, won the Honor Award in Lee & Low Books' New Voices Contest and the Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers. She lives in West Philadelphia.

Noa Denmon is a Philadelphia-based artist and illustrator. She is a graduate of The University of the Arts with a BFA in Illustration, and an MAT in Arts and Teaching. She loves patterns, pups, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a great cup of coffee, and all spicy foods. A Place Inside of Me is her first picture book.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

In this powerfully lyrical poem, Elliott articulates what resides deep down inside of the African American, skateboard-loving, first-person protagonist: joy, sorrow, fear, anger, hunger, pride, peace, and more. While the protagonist speaks, Denmon's illustrations, primarily in blue, pale yellow, and mauve, depict the tween boy doing skateboard tricks (showing the bottom of his board that's covered in peace and justice stickers) and spending time with friends, while muted backgrounds depict life in his urban neighborhood. This book delivers positivity, despite the inclusion of police brutality, a Black Lives Matter protest, and a vigil for the dead -- all of which affirm the child's realities. At school, when he presents his work to his classmates, great figures such as Mae Jemison, Jackie Robinson, Louis Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. appear on the opposite mural-like page, inspiring him as he takes pride in the past. On a page with no white space, a group of multigenerational Black individuals with different skin tones, facial features, hairstyles, and expressions faces the reader. The boy declares them triumphant & beautiful, as faintly visible images of African women peer from the background, carrying baskets of food on their heads -- referencing the ancestry of those in the foreground. A well-crafted, twenty-first-century love poem by two truth-telling Black women artists and activists. Copyright 2021 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

In this powerfully lyrical poem, Elliott articulates what resides "deep down inside" of the African American, skateboard-loving, first-person protagonist: joy, sorrow, fear, an ger, hunger, pride, peace, and more. While the protagonist speaks, Denmon's illustrations, primarily in blue, pale yellow, and mauve, depict the tween boy doing skateboard tricks (showing the bottom of his board that's covered in peace and justice stickers) and spending time with friends, while muted backgrounds depict life in his urban neighborhood. This book delivers positivity, despite the inclusion of police brutality, a Black Lives Matter protest, and a vigil for the dead -- all of which affirm the child's realities. At school, when he presents his work to his classmates, great figures such as Mae Jemison, Jackie Robinson, Louis Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. appear on the opposite mural-like page, inspiring him as he takes pride in the past. On a page with no white space, a group of multigenerational Black individuals with different skin tones, facial features, hairstyles, and expressions faces the reader. The boy declares them "triumphant & beautiful," as faintly visible images of African women peer from the background, carrying baskets of food on their heads -- referencing the ancestry of those in the foreground. A well-crafted, twenty-first-century love poem by two truth-telling Black women artists and activists. Michelle H. Martin November/December p.119 Copyright 2020 Horn Book Magazine Reviews.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

This poignant poem follows a Black child as they process emotions following a tragedy and find renewal in community action. The child gleans pleasure from skateboarding and playing basketball, until police killing a girl disrupts their equilibrium. As the protagonist recognizes internal sorrow, fear, and anger in turn, they join Black Lives Matter protests and attend a candlelight vigil. Identifying the pride, compassion, and hope they draw from community, the child ultimately concludes, "I am in love with/ my people/ all people," and determines to "love myself/ most of all." Denmon's textured, dynamic illustrations situate a compassionate community among murals of flowers and vines. The characters' varying ages, cultures, skin tones, features, and personal styles reflect a diversity of Black experiences, notably in a spread that portrays Black visionaries through the ages (including Beyoncé, Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, and Louis Armstrong). A resonant exultation of community and the importance of self-reflection. Ages 4–8. (July)