Grief, and its many iterations, works its way into the prose as well.īoth of Johnson’s books feature characters with complicated relationships to parentage and family, and two of her main characters are working through the loss of a parent. It’s why she tackles mental health in her work, she said, and in “You Should See Me In a Crown,” the character Liz Lighty describes both her anxiety and how she copes. Johnson’s books seek to fill in the gaps of what was missing in the books of her youth, not only when it comes to characters, but also when considering themes and character traits. “There is no story that I can tell that does not examine all the intersections of how we exist together.”

“Class and race and gender are always gonna be things that are of paramount importance to me,” Johnson said. Liz Lighty, the protagonist, is reaching for prom queen even as she feels “too Black, too poor, too awkward” in her small, prom-obsessed Indiana town.

While “You Should See Me In a Crown” takes on the classic story of running for prom queen, it subverts the trope by using prom to examine power and privilege. Like, how can I use this? Take a fun, poppy, bubbly idea to shuffle in other ideas about what it means to be a human?” “I’m always trying to sort of Trojan-horse all my stories. It’s hard to be a teenager and it’s hard not to have all the answers and it’s hard to think you have the answers, but not know what to do with them,” Johnson said. “I think any story about high school is actually low-key very heavy. While Johnson’s books are for a younger demographic, her work doesn’t shy away from examining the structures and systems pressing down on the shoulders of her characters - or her readers. Last year, she sold 'Ellie Engel Saves Herself,” a middle-grade novel described as “a superhero origin story in the tone of ‘The Baby-Sitters Club.’” Johnson’s latest book, “Rise to the Sun,” is about two girls who find love at a music festival. The book made TIME’s list of the “ 100 Best YA Books of All Time” and was the first young adult monthly pick for Reese’s Book Club. Leah Johnson’s debut, “You Should See Me In a Crown,” is about a young, queer Black girl in small-town Indiana who runs for prom queen as a way to fund her education.

Rise to the sun leah johnson