Rebel teen Roberta Forest – a smart poet who is black and Catholic – is questioning God and the adults in her life. She’s finding solace in writing poetry and reading about Malcolm X, but when she becomes ineligible to enter the school essay contest, she explodes. A confrontation with her mother will expose some family secrets Roberta may not be ready for. Gritty and graceful, Malcolm and Me is a coming-of-age story about family, faith and what it means to forgive.
Roberta Forest is a 13-year-old Philly poet who doesn’t mind speaking her mind. Even at her Catholic school, she didn’t hesitate to call out the racism during a class on Thomas Jefferson, which resulted in a nun calling her a racist name. Set in the 1970s, this story gets straight to the point when it comes to talking about racism and oppression.
In the opening scene of Robin Farmer’s debut young adult novel, “Malcolm and Me,” Roberta Forest is in a class at the Catholic school she attends. The teacher, a nun, asks how Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence when, at the time, he held slaves. Roberta’s answer? Jefferson was a hypocrite.
The year is 1973, and the nun responds to Roberta by telling her to get on a boat and go back to Africa. A fight ensues, and Roberta is suspended.
Although the incident opens a work of fiction, it actually happened to an 11-year-old Farmer. “I thought what I was saying was the correct thing,” she says. “I wasn’t trying to be a show pony or a smartass.”
Two Richmond-area authors have been gathering national attention for their debut novels. Robin Farmer’s forthcoming “Malcolm and Me” was recently hot-listed by BuzzFeed, while Rachel Beanland’s first novel sizzled over the summer as a Barnes & Noble Book Club pick.
Farmer’s novel doesn’t drop until late November, but the striking cover and story have already caught the attention of BuzzFeed. The news and entertainment website named the novel one of the “12 Most Anticipated YA … Books for Back to School,” along with heavy hitters such as “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer’s eagerly anticipated “Midnight Sun.”
“I was really excited to see my book up there with ‘Twilight’s’ Stephenie Meyer,” Farmer said in a recent phone interview from her home in Hanover County.
“Malcolm and Me” is about Roberta Forest, a feisty teenager growing up in 1970s Philadelphia. After clashing with her Catholic school teacher over Thomas Jefferson’s enslavement of people, Roberta begins to question everything in her life: her parents, school and the Watergate scandals.
“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” helps her cope with her parents’ troubled marriage and the inequality of the world around her.
Roberta Forest doesn’t see the world in black and white. She is a feisty, teenage girl conflicted about being young, smart, Black, and Catholic. As she begins to question her faith, she focuses on poetry, an upcoming essay contest, and reads The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which leads to an explosive realization about the adults in her life that she looks up to. This coming-of-age novel is all about self-discovery and questioning the things that make us who we are and where we come from.
Freelance writer Robin Farmer is set to release her first book, “Angel Dressed in Black,” in 2021 after winning a nationwide indie publishing contest.
The Hanover County resident was one of two women whose manuscripts were selected by She Writes Press and SparkPress for a free publishing package typically priced at $7,500 that will include a 500-book run and more.
The contest, started in 2018, is part of an effort to bring more diversity to the literary world, according to contest organizers.
