If This World Were Mine

A dazzling and heartfelt YA novel in verse by Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award winner Arriel Vinson about a Black girl majorette healing from loss while discovering how to dance to her own beat.

It’s hard to plan for the future when the one you envisioned is now a thing of the past.

Seventeen-year-old Sky Simms should be riding high. It’s senior year, and she’s the dance team captain with a shot at a competition that could change her life. But Sky is still reeling from her older brother’s sudden, tragic death and the collapse of their shared HBCU dreams—she as majorette, he as drum major.

With the memory of her brother ever-present, Sky struggles to manage all the moving parts of her life—school, college prep, dance—let alone find excitement for them. Once practice is in full swing, Sky’s distracted from her woes when forced to work with Meech, the cute but annoying drumline captain. And she slowly discovers they can help each other with more than the competition.

But she can only run from her grief for so long. Sky might not know what life looks like without her brother, but if she doesn’t learn to deal with the present, she could fumble her future before she can imagine a new one.