Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young Peoples Literature Jacqueline Woodsons first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories. It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chatby themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for A Room to Talk), they discover its safe to talk about whats bothering themeverything from Estebans fathers deportation and Haleys fathers incarceration to Amaris fears of racial profiling and Ashtons adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.