Hey, it's NPR's Book the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The debut YA novel We Deserve Monuments from author

Jazz Hammonds is getting all these great reviews. The book touches on race and queerness and

intergenerational drama, all these heavy topics. And in this interview with NPR's Wanda Summers,

Hammond's shares this thing that

their mentor said, that debut authors often try to put everything into that first book, because

it might be their only shot, which I can totally see resulting in a book that's kind of a mess,

but that doesn't happen here. Instead, Hammond's talks about balancing all the heavy and

heady subject matter with something joyful, like young love. In the U.S., national security

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closed doors on our new show, sources and methods. NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

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We Deserve Monuments is the debut novel by writer Jazz Hammonds. It's a young adult love story and a family mystery in which Hammonds touches on the familiar through their own lens.

I wanted to tell a story about a daughter and a mother and a grandmother. Like I jokingly call my my book, like, Gilmore Girls, but make it black and gay, just, like,

in relationships to the women in the story.

Their main character is 17-year-old Avery Anderson.

She is on the cusp of her senior year when her mom decides to uproot the whole family from D.C. to go down to the small town in Georgia where she grew up because the family matriarch is dying and in her final days.

And as Avery tries to unravel a painful family secret, she also finds herself crushing hard on Simone, the girl next door.

There's a lot in this book that will keep readers guessing, especially the character who sets everything in motion.

So I had to ask Jazz Hammonds about her.

So we've just got to dig in here and talk about Mommeletti Avery's grandmother.

You make her feel really familiar.

She is grumpy and wisecracking, but has this heart of gold.

...