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Like Anne Frank, Genna Colon, in Zetta Elliott’s A WISH AFTER MIDNIGHT (Rosetta Pres, 2008),  has left an indelible mark on me. 

It’s speculative fiction at its best. It’s also a story that will take any teenager (and adult) on the ride of her life! Just watch the trailer.

Genna has dreams. She’s smart. And Zetta has masterfully woven an old soul into this fifteen year old girl. Adults can appreciate Genna’s maturity, while young people can learn a great deal from her bravery and knowledge.  Having a young, African American girl, who to me, is a heroine in this story, could EASILY be a role model for our young people. Yes – we need more role models of color that our kids can relate to.

“I like really old things, things that were made thirty, fifty, or a hundred years ago. In the garden, all the old things still look new because people take care of them. Nobody sprays graffiti all over the place, and you almost never see trash lying on the ground.” A WISH AFTER MIDNIGHT (Rosetta Pres, 2008)

Genna wants what we all want out of life – an opportunity for success. But her life is a struggle. It’s such a struggle that she finds herself wishing and wanting to escape her realities of family struggles, bullying and  a typical teenage with a boy named Judah.

There’s love, adventure, history, and family drama, all rolled up into a story whose sequel I cannot wait to read.

“I crawl out from under the weeping hemlock and try to stand, but my legs are weak and I fall back to the ground just as a cart rolls up with two security guards. I have the impulse but not the energy to run, so I stay as I am and wait to see what they will do.” A WISH AFTER MIDNIGHT (Rosetta Pres, 2008)

For teachers of American History and English, AWAM is the perfect piece of historical fiction that will force students to think about not only the plot, but the elements creating the plot. Hence the speculative fiction being threaded throughout the novel.

AWAM also comes with well-thought-out discussion topics and activities in the back of the book.

Believe me, your students will be riveted by Genna’s tumultuous and magical journey back through time, who she leaves behind, and how she gets back.

Today is the release day for Zetta Elliott’s A WISH AFTER MIDNIGHT (encore edition). Since I can’t be there (NYC) to help celebrate her at the launch party, I will have a cupcake here in her honor. A little background on the book, Zetta self-published AWAM in 2009 under her own Rosetta Press through Amazon’s self-publishing program. After selling over 500 copies on her own, she was approached by Amazon’s publishing company, Amazon Encore, to redesign and package the book and be sold through all Amazon avenues, Kindle, paperback, etc. As you may already know, I had the honor of illustrating Zetta’s first picturebook, BIRD, and helped design the original cover for AWAM (I say helped, because Zetta supplied the vision and pictures for the original cover). It has been a pleasure watching this book grow and I am looking forward to seeing how far Zetta soars~

Congrats Z.

See the AWAM blog to keep up with all the happenings. For more information on Zetta and her books visit her website at www.zettaelliott.com, where you can also access her film and writing blog Fledgling.