Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed

• YALSA Gold Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner
• California Book Award Winner
• J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize Winner
• SCBWI Golden Kite Honor Award Winner
• SCBWI Russell Freedman Nonfiction for A Better World Award Winner
• CALIBA Golden Poppy Book Award Winner
• Nerdy Book Club Award for Best Longform Nonfiction Winner
• Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List Selection
• Project Lit Selection
• BCCB Best Book of the Year
• Book We Can’t Stop Thinking About from Mother Jones Magazine
• Booklist Editors’ Choice
• SLJ Best Young Adult Book of the Year
• TAYSHAS Top Ten
• Best of the Best Book from Chicago Public Library
• Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2023
• One of Common Sense Media’s Top 5 Books of 2023
• One of Crime Reads’ Best Young Adult Mysteries, Thriller and Horror Novels of 2023
• One of Groton Public Library’s Best Nonfiction Books of 2023
• Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
• Amazon Best Book of the Month
• Four Starred Reviews
• Kirkus 10 Summer Page-Turners For Teens
• WeAreTeachers 18 Best Books About Social Media

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The 57 Bus comes Accountable, a propulsive and thought-provoking true story about the revelation of a racist social media account that changes everything for a group of high school students and begs the question: What does it mean to be held accountable for harm that takes place behind a screen?

“Powerful, timely, and delicately written.” -Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award-winning author

When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew.

Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults-educators and parents-whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse.

In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean?

Award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater has written a must-read book for our era that explores the real-world consequences of online choices.

More Awards and Accolades for Accountable:

• Russell Freedman Award Winner
• Northern California Book Award Winner
• CALIBA’s Golden Poppy Book Award Winner
• An Evergreen Teen Book Award High School Nominee
• A SCBWI Golden Kite Honor for Nonfiction Text for Older Readers
• An Illinois Lincoln Readers’ Choice Award Nominee
• A Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award High School Category Nominee
• A Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award Nominee
• A Massachusetts Teen Choice Book Award Nominee
• A Vermont Green Mountain Book Award Nominee
• A Texas Topaz Reading List Selection
• A Texas Library Association TAYSHAS Top Ten Book
• A Florida Teens Read List Selection
• A Missouri Association of School Librarians Dogwood Reading List Selection