Buffalo Bayou Park: Inprint Cool Brains! Series presents Elizabeth Acevedo

Free and open to the public Free copies of Anger Is Only a Shadow for the first 100 families Presentation by Elizabeth Acevedo Meet the author, book sale, and signing Q&A with the audience and celebrated Houston writer Jasminne Mendez Pre-show performance by Meta4 Houston youth slam poetry team Learn about Restorative Houston Bus scholarships available for student groups – full scholarships for public schools, partial scholarships for private schools upon availability. For information, email [email protected] Books available through Kindred Stories Doors open at 1:30 pm The 2026/2027 Inprint Cool Brains!

Series proudly presents National Book Award winner and renowned poet Elizabeth Acevedo , sharing her new YA novel Anger Is Only a Shadow . Known for YA novels filled with poetry, humor, and heart, Elizabeth Acevedo is the New York Times -bestselling author of The Poet X , which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L.

Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High , which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly , and School Library Journal ; and Clap When You Land , which was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus finalist.

Acevedo is a National Poetry Slam Champion and served as the 2022 Young People’s Poet Laureate . “An irresistible story of family connection, resilience, and loyalty” ( Kirkus starred review), Anger Is Only a Shadow is Acevedo’s powerful new YA novel in prose and poetry. Lil is anything but small.

She’s rebellious, she’s loyal; she’s figuring out what kind of good person she wants to be, or if she wants to be a good person at all. But more than anything?

Lil wants to be free. When her instinct for freedom leads to another stay in D.C. juvenile detention, Lil knows she’s lucky to just be on probation.

But judgment, guilt, and an ankle monitor weigh heavily on her, and she can’t shake that pinned-down feeling. The only person who might understand is her big brother, Aldwin.

Except he’s more distant now than just the hundred miles from his college. As her court hearing ticks closer, a question looms over Lil as the missed phone calls and strange texts from her brother pile up: will she stay put, or put her future freedom on the line? “A striking and nuanced portrait of the realities of juvenile detention and mental illness” ( Publisher’s Weekly starred review) and “intensely genuine” ( The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books starred review ), Anger Is Only a Shadow is a journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing, no matter the cost.

This event is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.