Derrick Barnes

Derrick barnes

National Book Award Finalist for his graphic novel Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice, which received the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award, and a Coretta Scott King Book Award. He is also the author of The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze, which was Longlisted for the National Book Award, and the critically acclaimed picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Book Award, the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. In 2020, he became the only author to win the Kirkus Prize twice for the New York Times bestseller I Am Every Good Thing. Derrick is also the creator of the New York Times bestselling companion picture books The King of Kindergarten and The Queen of Kindergarten. He is a native of Kansas City, Missouri, but currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife Dr. Tinka Barnes and their four sons.

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The incredibly human hanson blayze

In the small town of Great Mountain, Mississippi, all eyes are on Henson Blayze, a 13-year-old football phenom whose talents seem almost superhuman. The predominately white townsfolk have been waiting for Henson to play high-school ball, and now they’re overjoyed to finally possess an elite Black athlete of their own.

Until a horrifying incident forces Henson to speak out about injustice.
Until he says that he might not play football anymore.
Until he quickly learns he isn’t as loved by the people as he thought.

In that moment, Henson’s town is divided into two chaotic sides when all he wants is justice. Even his best friends and his father can’t see eye to eye. When he is told to play ball again or else, Henson must decide whether he was born to entertain people who may not even see him as human, or if he’s destined for a different kind of greatness.