The Chosen One: A First-Generation Ivy League Odyssey (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780316310666)

This memoir filled with "overwhelming emotions and power" (The Mary Sue) testifies to the disappointments and triumphs of a Black first-generation college student in a predominantly white institution.

There are many watchers and they are always white. That's the first thing Echo notices as she settles into Dartmouth College. Despite graduating high school in Cleveland as valedictorian, Echo immediately struggles to keep up in demanding classes. Dartmouth made many promises it couldn't keep. The campus is not a rainbow-colored utopia where education lifts every voice. Nor is it a paradise of ideas, an incubator of inclusivity, or even an exciting dating scene. But it might be a portal to different dimensions of time and space--only accessible if Echo accepts her calling as a Chosen One and takes charge of her future by healing her past. This remarkable challenge demands vulnerability, humility, and the conviction to ask for help without sacrificing self-worth. In mesmerizing personal narrative and magical realism, Echo Brown confronts mental illness, grief, racism, love, friendship, ambition, self-worth, and belonging as they steer the fates of first-generation college students at Dartmouth. The Chosen One is an unforgettable coming-of-age story that bravely unpacks the double-edged college transition--as both catalyst for old wounds and a fresh start.

Finalist for the Ohioana Book Award
A Mary Sue Best YA Novel of the Year
2022 Catalyst Award Nominee for Best Memoir
A Junior Library Guild Selection

★ "Powerful and vulnerable"--Booklist, starred review​

★"The story asks readers to examine the various intersections of their own identities as they reflect upon the circumstances that shape Echo's reality . . .Echo and her crew will defy the many odds stacked against them."
―BCCB, starred review

Author: Echo Brown
ISBN-10: 0316310662
ISBN-13: 9780316310666
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books-Little Brown and Hach
Language: English
Published: 01/04/2022
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.50w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2021
Booklist 11/01/2021 pg. 59
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 01/01/2022 - Book Of Special Distinction
Publishers Weekly 02/28/2022