Rising Class: How Three First-Generation College Students Conquered Their First Year

Three first-generation college students maneuver university orientation jitters, social and identity-based clubs, FAFSA applications, and more in this eye-opening narrative nonfiction work by journalist Miller, told chronologically from the summer of 2019 into 2020. Missouri natives Connor and Jacklynn, a teenage white couple, struggle to keep their long-distance relationship alive via Skype, text conversations, and hours-long marathons of Minecraft while Jacklynn attends a local community college and Connor heads to Columbia University. Meanwhile, Briani, a Dominican and Mexican scholarship student from Lawrenceville, Ga., also attending Columbia, is hyperaware of her classmates’ comparative privilege. She worries about not measuring up to them financially, and feels pressured to put up a front to fit in. The students’ social and academic anxieties are heightened by national goings-on, such as increased protests against police brutality and the arrival of Covid-19 in the U.S. Brief, accessibly narrated alternating chapters interwoven with newspaper headlines provide glimpses into the teens’ daily lives. By foregrounding the trio’s raw emotions and visceral reactions to current affairs, Miller highlights the intense uncertainty faced by teens trying to navigate life-changing situations amid traumatizing social crises. A follow-up with the students concludes. Ages 12–up. Agent: Mollie Glick, Creative Artists Agency. (Mar.)