Randi Pink

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GZLA

UNDER THE HERON'S LIGHT

October 2024, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 352 pp

On a damp night in 1722, Babylou Mac and her three siblings witness the murder of their mother at the hands of the local preacher’s son—so Babylou kills him in retaliation. With plantation dogs now on their heels, the four siblings breach the treacherous confines of the Great Dismal Swamp. Deeper and deeper into Dismal they delve, amid the biting moccasins and pitch-black waters, toward a refuge where they can live freely within the swamp’s natural—and supernatural—protection.

Three-hundred years later, college student Atlas comes home to North Carolina for the annual Bornday cookout and hog roast: a celebration of the fact that she and her three cousins were all born on the same day nineteen years ago, sharing a birthday with their Grannylou. But this Bornday, Grannylou’s usual riddles and folktales about a marvelous paradise deep in the Great Dismal Swamp start to take on a tangible quality. Change coming.

When Dismal calls, sucking Grannylou in, it’s up to Atlas and her cousins to uncover the history that the black waters hold. Centuries of family tension, with roots all over Virginia and North Carolina, are about to be dug up. Because Babylou and Grannylou are one and the same, and the power she helped cultivate hundreds of years ago—steeped in Black resistance, familial love, and the otherworldly mysteries of the Great Dismal Swamp—is bubbling back up. But so is a bitterness that runs deep as the swamp’s waters. And some are ready to take what they feel they’re owed.

STARRED REVIEWS

KIRKUS – “A fierce, loving, and exquisite humanity-centered book.”

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – “Mesmerizing storytelling.”

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “The lyrical and ethereal writing alongside the warmth of the dialect, a creative concept extremely well executed, and characters readers can’t help but care about combine with painfully authentic emotions for a one-sitting read.”


Marietta Zacker


Young Adult


Diverse

Family

Fantasy

Historical

Supernatural


Dramatic

Translation

UK

GZLA

WE ARE THE SCRIBES

October 2022, Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan, 320 pp

Ruth Fitz is surrounded by activism. Her mother is a senator, her father is a professor of African American history, and her beloved older sister, Virginia, is a natural activist, steadily gaining notoriety within the community and on social media. Ruth, on the other hand, would rather sit quietly reading or writing in her journal.

When Virginia is killed on the way to a protest, Ruth stops speaking and writing, not believing herself worthy of the power of words. Then her mother is picked as the next democratic vice-presidential nominee and her family must join her on the campaign trail. Ruth can see her family falling apart under the pressure of grief and national, often racist, attention. Suddenly, Ruth begins receiving parchment letters from Harriet Jacobs, the author of the autobiography and 1861 American classic, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Harriet urges Ruth to find her voice again and join the legacy of scribes who use their words to heal and to change the world.

Ruth wonders if she’s dreaming or going insane, receiving scrolls from a woman long dead. But with the help of Harriet and memories of her sister, Ruth finds the power to speak, to write, and to control her own narrative. In a story that blends present with past, Randi Pink explores two extraordinary characters who channel their hopelessness and find their voices to make history.


Marietta Zacker


Young Adult


Contemporary

Diverse

Feminism

History


Dramatic

Translation

UK

GZLA

ANGEL OF GREENWOOD

January 2021, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 304pp

ANGEL OF GREENWOOD is a historical fiction novel set in the Tulsa, Oklahoma neighborhood of Greenwood, affectionately known as Black Wall Street, in which sixteen-year-old Angel and seventeen-year-old Isaiah, surrounded by idyllic beauty, passionate intellectualism, and black excellence, fall in love.

After a whirlwind romance, Angel and Isaiah realize that evil has made other plans for them and their thriving community when they find themselves in the midst of one of the worst atrocities in U.S. history: The Greenwood Massacre of 1921. Angel, Isaiah and their friends must do what they can to survive and move forward with strength and resilience in the face of unspeakable racial injustice.

STARRED REVIEWS

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – “Rich in its discussion of Black literature, this novel brilliantly juxtaposes a lighthearted story of young Black love with a deft reminder that such beauty has often been violently seized from Black people, and that these instances deserve remembrance.”

INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS

FrenchEditions Slalom

NOTE: Audio rights sold to Tantor Media


Marietta Zacker


Young Adult


Activism

Coming-of-Age

Diverse

Historical

Romance


Audio

Dramatic

Translation

UK


GZLA

GIRLS LIKE US

October 2019, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 320 pp

This historical fiction novel set in the summer of 1972, months before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade, is an introspective look into abortion rights. The novel weaves together the lives of three teenage girls from very different backgrounds. 16-year-old Ola, 12-year-old Missippi, and 15-year-old Sue all find themselves pregnant pre-Choice, and must decide, before they become too far along in their pregnancies, how to move forward.

STARRED REVIEWS

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “An excellent fictionalized look at the reality of teen pregnancy with a historical lens. A must for all teen collections.”

ACCOLADES

A School Library Journal Best YA Book of 2019


Marietta Zacker


Young Adult


Diverse

Feminism

Historical


Audio

Dramatic

Translation

UK


GZLA

INTO WHITE

September 2016, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 288 pp

Sixteen-year-old Latoya Williams, who is black, attends a mostly white high school in the Alabama. In a moment of desperation, she prays for the power to change her race and wakes up white. Randi Pink’s audacious fiction debut dares to explore a subject that will spark conversations about race, class, and gender.

STARRED REVIEWS

BOOKLIST – Using the trappings of a fairy tale, Pink pulls readers in with Toya’s charming naiveté and a highly eccentric version of Montgomery, Alabama. (Yes, Jesus is a character, and he drives a stolen 1990 Saab and listens to Mariah Carey.) Underneath, though, hides a grittier tale of race and gender dynamics in the contemporary South. Pink is careful to never allow the story itself to fall into agenda-pushing. Instead, she allows Toya to explore the gray areas teens negotiate as their identities shift and as their belief systems are challenged. This debut ought to inspire readers to have conversations among themselves about family, empathy, community, and respect for others.

NOTE: English Audio rights sold to Listening Library.


Marietta Zacker


Young Adult


Coming-of-Age

Contemporary

Diverse

Magical Realism


Audio

Dramatic

Translation

UK