It’s Okay to Shine: A review of Vaunda Micheaux Nelson’s Radiant, a guest post by author Linda Williams Jackson

While staring at my reflection in the mirror of my hotel room, I considered changing my outfit. I wore black slacks, a pink blouse, a black-and-white checkered blazer with pink trim on the collar, a necklace that matched my blouse, and—because I’m short, but I like to feel tall—high-heeled shoes.

I felt overdressed.

This is a bit much, I scolded myself. After all, it was the final day of a librarians’ conference, and, though I was scheduled to present a workshop, I knew that most folks had dipped out by the last day of the conference and attendance would probably be low for my workshop.

A simple blouse and slacks will do, my mind chastised again. You’ll be walking a lot, and most folks will wear comfortable clothes and shoes. So, why are you dressing up?

Because I like dressing up, I told myself. But, in the words of my young adult daughters, I felt like I was “doing too much.” As usual, my mind raced with thoughts of what others would think about me.

Then, a new voice entered my head. It said, “It’s okay to shine.”

Huh? Where did that come from?

“It’s okay to shine?” I said aloud. That voice was sooo not mine.

At first, I laughed. Then, I suddenly felt empowered.

Why had I been so concerned about being overdressed? Why was I so concerned about how other people would perceive me if I wore slacks, a blazer, and high-heeled shoes to a librarians’ conference where I already knew I’d be doing a copious amount of walking? Why was I so afraid to stand out? Why was I so afraid to shine?

The dimming of my shine, I realized, had begun fifty years before—in third grade—and it was a weight that I have carried ever since. Herein comes the story of Cooper Dale, the main character in Vaunda Micheaux Nelson’s heartwarming middle-grade novel, Radiant. Unlike Cooper Dale, a black girl entering fifth grade at a predominately white school near Pittsburgh, PA, in 1963, the dimming of my shine began when I, also a black girl, entered third grade at a predominately black school in Rosedale, MS, in 1974. Though there are eleven years (1963 versus 1974) and almost 900 miles (Pittsburgh to Rosedale) between our stories, my childhood story is still deeply connected to the fictitious story of Cooper Dale.

Not since Sharon Flake’s The Skin I’m In have I, as an adult, connected with a middle-grade character so strongly. Like Maleeka, the main character in The Skin I’m In, I was taunted relentlessly by my classmates for my dark complexion. I also had a “best friend” who ridiculed me often for the hand-me-down clothes I wore. In Nelson’s Radiant, the main character Cooper Dale is taunted relentlessly by a white classmate who makes her feel so badly about the color of her skin that she secretly wishes she were white. Although most of my classmates were black like me, their constant teasing and bullying made me resort to secretly using bleaching creams to try to lighten my complexion.

But the teasing didn’t end with my complexion and my lack of decent clothing, I was also taunted for simply wanting to be a good student. Like Cooper Dale. So, there were times when I wouldn’t turn in my homework if the cool kids hadn’t done theirs. Sometimes I would allow others to cheat off my test. (I once got caught.) And I would even stoop so low, trying to be liked, that I would do other students’ homework for them, or even write their papers.

In a chapter titled “‘Shine’ Defined,” Cooper Dale states, “I look up ‘shine’ in the dictionary. It means a lot of good stuff. The kind Mama means: ‘To radiate. To give off light. To be made bright by polishing. To sparkle and shimmer with luster. It means brilliance and splendor.’ —That’s what I want.”

When I entered third grade at West Bolivar Elementary school in 1974, I, too, wanted to shine. In fact, both my first and second-grade teachers had polished me in such a way that I was accustomed to shining. So, when my third-grade teacher asked me to write my name on the board because I was new to the school, I couldn’t wait to show off my radiance. I wrote my name in giant cursive letters across the entire chalk board.

Big mistake.

From that day forward, I was the target of intense bullying all the way to grade six. From that day forward, I became obsessed with making sure I never intentionally stood out again.

As I stood in a hotel room that day, a fifty-eight-year-old woman, whose inner voice finally gave her permission to shine, I couldn’t help but think of Vaunda Micheaux Nelson’s finely crafted work of fiction (with historical details deftly woven in) and how it had touched my heart when I didn’t know I needed it—how it had healed a fifty-year-old wound that I didn’t realize was still bleeding.

Although Radiant is a book about race and identity, and about family, faith, and friendship, it is also a book about empowerment and permission. I believe it has the ability to empower children, regardless of gender or race, to embrace who they are and strive to be all they dare to be. I believe it has the power to give young readers permission to shine. To glow. To be brilliant. To be radiant.

Cooper stated in Radiant, “I do want to shine. I want to shine so bright, so bright that I blind Wade. Color blind him.”

Cooper Dale asks the question, “… why does my skin matter so much?”

I’m sure many children ask this same question. Especially now. So much has changed since 1963, yet so much is still the same. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed that one day his four little children would live in a nation where they would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Unfortunately, nearly 60 years have passed, and people are still being judged by the color of their skin and not by the content of their character. I believe that this book—Radiant—has the power to be, as Rudine Sims Bishop stated, a window for some, a sliding glass door for others, and a mirror for many. I hope it reaches young readers who need empowerment as well as those who need to learn empathy.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to have books like The Skin I’m In and Radiant when I was a bullied little Black girl growing up in rural Mississippi—books that would have helped me see my worth regardless of the color or complexion of my skin. I’m so glad that these books are available to help a child feel worthy today. Warm, charming, and utterly necessary, this beautiful work of historical fiction is a classic in the making. Young readers will certainly devour and adore it.

Meet the author

Linda Williams Jackson is the author of Midnight Without a Moon, which was an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book, a Jane Addams Honor Book for Peace and Social Justice, and a Washington Post Summer Book Club Selection. Her second book, A Sky Full of Stars, received a Malka Penn Honor for an outstanding children’s book addressing human rights issues and was a Bank Street College Best Book of the Year. Her third book, The Lucky Ones, also a Bank Street College Best Book of the Year—among other award nominations—was inspired by Robert Kennedy’s 1967 Poverty Tour of the Mississippi Delta and is loosely based on her own family’s experiences in the Delta. Born and raised in Rosedale, Mississippi, Linda Williams Jackson lives in Southaven, Mississippi, with her family.

About Radiant

A historical middle-grade novel in verse from multiple Coretta Scott King winner Vaunda Micheaux Nelson.

As school begins in 1963, Cooper Dale wrestles with what it means to “shine” for a black girl in a predominantly white community near Pittsburgh. Set against the historic backdrop of the Birmingham church bombing, the Kennedy assassination, and Beatlemania, Radiant is a finely crafted novel in verse about race, class, faith, and finding your place in a loving family and a complicated world.

Cooper’s primary concern is navigating fifth grade, where she faces both an extra-strict teacher and the bullying of Wade Carter, the only child of a well-to-do white family, whose home Cooper’s mother cleans for extra income. How can she shine when her mother works for the meanest boy in school? To make matters worse, Cooper quietly wishes she could be someone else.

It’s not all bad, though. Cooper and her beloved older sister have fallen for the Beatles, and Cooper is thrilled to have something special they can share. And what she learns about her British idols adds new complexity to Cooper’s feelings about race.

ISBN-13: 9780593855782
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date: 01/07/2025
Age Range: 10 – 14 Years

Filed under: Book Reviews