I Am The Root

Harlem, 1938. Two boys. One bitter rivalry. And a fight that could change everything.

Henry has stopped speaking, but on the page, his voice is powerful. Bullied by Moses, the feared "Mad Hatter," he longs to fight back. But behind the swagger, Moses has a secret: he is struggling to read and terrified the world will discover his shame.

When their feud leads to a public boxing match, both boys prepare for battle. But against the electrifying backdrop of Joe Louis's legendary triumph over Max Schmeling, Henry begins discovering something stronger than his fists: the power of words, history, and knowing who he is.

Rich with the music, struggles, and spirit of 1930s Harlem, I Am The Root is an inspiring story of courage, identity, friendship, and finding your voice.

Praise for I Am The Root

I Am The Root is a novel written with tenderness and imagination. Rita Simpson offers a fresh and compelling voice that breathes new life into Black ancestral traditions, revealing how memory, storytelling, literacy, and love become pathways to freedom.

Rich in heart and historical insight, this novel invites young readers (and adults) to discover that their deepest roots are also the source of their greatest strength.

-- Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D. Author, The Peace Chronicles and Archaeology of Self: The Introspective Educator's Guide to Racial Literacy & Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University

“We have waited a long time for a book that trusts children– trusts them to hold history, to feel its weight, and to speak back to it with their full voices.

Rita Simpson’s I Am The Root understands what we in schools have always known but rarely said aloud: that the classroom can be a site of liberation or a site of erasure, and that the difference lives in whether we allow children to bring their whole selves, their whole histories through the door.

Every school that says it is committed to equity should put I Am The Root in the hands of every child and every adult who walks in its halls.”

– Dr. Mary Anton, Ed.D. Harvard Graduate School of Education; Lecturer, Lynch School of Educational Leadership Boston College; Chair and Co-Founder, Schools Transforming.