Anger Is Only a Shadow

From National Book Award-winning,New York Times-bestselling author and renowned poet Elizabeth Acevedo comes a white-knuckle journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing, no matter the cost.

Lil is anything but small. Shes 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 shes lucky tojustbe on probation. But judgment, guilt, and an ankle monitor weigh heavily on her, and she cant shake that pinned-down feeling.

The only person who might understand is her big brother, Aldwin. Except hes more distant now than just the hundred miles where hes away at college. Somethings been off with him for a couple of months, but only Lil seems to realize how important it is to get to him.

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 follow the rules until her sentencing, or put her future freedom on the line?

Elizabeth Acevedois theNew York Times-bestselling author ofThe Poet X,which won the National Book Award for Young Peoples Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpr Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Boston GlobeHorn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author ofWith the Fire on Highwhich was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR,Publishers Weekly, andSchool Library JournalandClap When You Land, which was a Boston GlobeHorn Book Honor book and aKirkusPrize finalist. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem and Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writers Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC, with her family.

• Publisher: Quill Tree Books
• Publish Date: September 15, 2026
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• Type: Hardcover
• EAN/UPC: 9780062882790
• Dimensions: 8.3 X 5.5 X 0.0 inches | 0.85 pounds
• BISAC Categories: Teens & YA