Angel of Greenwood is an emotional read that makes you laugh, feel deep sadness, anger, love, and mourning. This story is based off of a real life event, which gives the story it tells even more power. As you follow along with the lives of the two main teens, you start to grow with the characters. The character development helps you see what they are seeing and feel what they are feeling, which makes the events of the Tulsa Massacre of 1912 even more real.

The character foils of Isiah and Angel create two very different perspectives on the meaning of life, especially as an African American. Both teens debate and discuss heavy topics such as Black American Civil Rights and how they view race. These topics can be difficult to think about, but the books does so in showing differing views. This shows there is never one right answer, but discussions must be had in order to share perspectives.

The cover art of the book tells a story. A library program that could be implemented alongside this story is a paint night led by a Black American artist. They could come in and discuss self portraits and the stories art can tell.

A local Las Vegas artist, Q'shaundra James, painted portraits to represent important black experiences. She would be a great person to reach out to and see if she would collaborate with the library. (Abdelsayed, 2021)

(Abdelsayed, 2021)

(1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, 2021)

This books was included because every personal that was ruthlessly murdered that day had a life, a story, a family and this books brings a reality to that situation. This book made me cry just thinking about the pain and suffering that resulted because of hatred toward race is appalling. It is important for teens to be exposed to books such as these, because it is unlikely that they will meet people who experienced this event first hand, but the history is so important to teach because without knowledge of the past there is no hope for the future.