You Should See Me in a Crown

Cover for You Should See Me in a Crown
Liz has one chance of gaining a scholarship to attend her dream college: Become prom queen. No easy task for an awkward, anxious Black girl. Especially when she finds herself falling for the main competition.

You Should See Me in a Crown
US | UK

Becky Albertalli meets Jenny Han in a smart, hilarious, black girl magic, own voices rom-com by a staggeringly talented new writer.

Liz Lighty has always believed she’s too black, too poor, too awkward to shine in her small, rich, prom-obsessed midwestern town. But it’s okay — Liz has a plan that will get her out of Campbell, Indiana, forever: attend the uber-elite Pennington College, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor.

But when the financial aid she was counting on unexpectedly falls through, Liz’s plans come crashing down … until she’s reminded of her school’s scholarship for prom king and queen. There’s nothing Liz wants to do less than endure a gauntlet of social media trolls, catty competitors, and humiliating public events, but despite her devastating fear of the spotlight she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get to Pennington.

The only thing that makes it halfway bearable is the new girl in school, Mack. She’s smart, funny, and just as much of an outsider as Liz. But Mack is also in the running for queen. Will falling for the competition keep Liz from her dreams … or make them come true?

Practical information

Author: Leah Johnson
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication year: 2020
ISBN: 9781338503265
Age category: young adult
Disabilities portrayed: anxiety disorder, mental illness
Genres: contemporary, romance

Accessible formats


audiobook available

Author

Leah Johnson

Leah Johnson is an editor, educator, and author of books for young adults. Her bestselling debut YA novel You Should See Me in a Crown was a Stonewall Honor Book, the inaugural Reese's Book Club YA pick, and named a best book of the year by Amazon, Kirkus, Marie Claire, Publishers Weekly, and New York Public Library. Leah's essays and cultural criticism can be found in Teen Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Cosmo among others. Her sophomore novel Rise to the Sun is forthcoming from Scholastic in 2021.

Liz’s story rose out of an attempt to write into the empty spaces that I saw in YA growing up. I wanted to put a girl on the page who lived and loved and did her best by the people she cares about that I hadn’t read before. I was also thinking a lot about the imagery of what it would look like to give a queer Black girl everything she deserves — to literally put a crown on her head and call her a queen. What would seeing that have done for me as a teenager? What does seeing that mean for me now? All of the pieces sort of fell into place when I began framing it for myself in that way.
(The Nerd Daily, June 2020)