Bibliographic Information:
Title: Riot Baby
Author: Tochi Onyebuchi
ISBN: 9781250214751
Publisher: Tor Books
Copyright Date: 2019
Genre: Sci/fi, speculative fiction, historical fiction
Format: Print book
Awards: 2020 ALA Alex Award winner, finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards
Reading Level/Interest level: 14+ (Jensen, 2020), but the complexity of the language mean it’s best for older teens
Plot Summary: Ella has a Thing, though she can’t quite control it. She starts to realize it during the riots after the Rodney King verdict, when he mother goes into labor and gives birth to her brother. They flee to the other side of the country, but violence follows them wherever they go. Kev grows up in Ella’s absence, as she grapples with her abilities, and ends up in Rikers after being caught up in an armed robbery. The narrative is never straightforward, but scenes jump between Ella and Kev, reality bending to fit Ella’s gifts. Kev struggles with his family’s past, intertwined with ever-present racial violence, and a speculative future in which the Algorithm rules policing and the policed. Does Ella have what it takes to bring it all down? Will she? Should she?
Author Background: Tochi Onyebuchi has degrees from Yale University, Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia Law School, and the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Onyebuchi, n.d.). He has worked with prisoners in Rikers as well as He has written both fiction and non-fiction featured in The New York Times, NPR, and The Best American Science Fiction.
Critical Evaluation: This is a powerful, important book, though not an easy one. I wasn’t always sure of what was going on, but the feelings were never in doubt; rage simmers under the surface of every sentence. Beautifully crafted, Onyebuchi explores the difference between peace and order as the past and the future layer into one reality: “it’s gravity that smashes us together, and then we turn into electrons being flung apart by stuff larger than ourselves. It’s all physics” (Onyebuchi, 2019, p. 77). Teens may struggle at times, but they deserve the respect to grapple with this important work and figure out what it means to them.
Creative Use for a Library Program: This book lends itself well to a discussion group. Readers will undoubtedly have many questions. The moderator should take care that Black participants feel supported to process any anger and grief that comes up after reading the book. Because even this white reader felt a lot.
Speed-Round Book Talk: Imagine your brother was in jail, and you had special powers that could break him out. Would you? And if you could, would you stop there? This searing work of speculative fiction examines race in America, and leaves us with our own answers.
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: This is an angry book, which makes many white people very defensive. It depicts drug use, makes reference to prison rape, and includes a fair amount of cursing and violence. While it’s not aimed at younger teens, one of the narrators is a teen for the bulk of the book, and it’s an excellent way to talk about difficult topics. School Library Journal recommends it highly for older teens, so I would feel confident having their backing. I would argue that the topic is too important to ignore.
Reason for Inclusion: It’s rare to find a book about race that is completely uncaring for the white gaze. Onyebuchi is very frank about his aims; as he puts it, “while dystopia is imagined future for some, it is lived reality for others” (Mayer, 2020, para. 16). Though fiction, this book tackles important topics for teens, and everyone.
Want more? Check out these illuminating interviews with the author: one with YALSA after his Alex Award win, and one with Petra Mayer at NPR as well as this one at the Strand Bookstore:
References
Jensen, L. (2020). ONYEBUCHI, Tochi. School Library Journal, 66(11), 72.
Mayer, P. (2020). ‘This isn’t new’: Questions for Tochi Onyebuchi, author of ‘Riot Baby.’ [interview] Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2020/01/26/798237707/this-isnt-new-questions-for-tochi-onyebuchi-author-of-riot-baby
Onyebuchi, T. (n.d.). About me. Retrieved from https://www.tochionyebuchi.com/about-me
Onyebuch, T. (2019). Riot Baby. New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates/MacMillan
Strand Bookstore (February 7, 2020). Tochi Onyebuchi | Riot Baby
. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfknrg4peL8
YALSA (May 14, 2021). An interview with Alex Award winner Tochi Onyebuchi, author of Riot Baby. Retrieved from http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2021/05/14/an-interview-with-alex-award-winner-tochi-onyebuchi-author-of-riot-baby/
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