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On the Come Up: A Novel, Based on a True Story
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Published:
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2013
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Description

Based on a true story, an impassioned and propulsive debut novel about a headstrong girl from Far Rockaway, Queens, who is trying to find her place in the world
Written in an urban vernacular that’s electrifying and intimate, On the Come Up introduces a heroine whose voice is irrepressible, dynamic, and unstintingly honest. Thirteen-year-old AnnMarie Walker dreams of a world beyond Far Rockaway, where the sway of the neighborhood keeps her tied to old ideas about success. While attending a school for pregnant teens, AnnMarie comes across a flyer advertising movie auditions in Manhattan. Astonishingly, improbably, and four months before she’s due to give birth—she lands a lead role. For a time, AnnMarie soars—acting for the camera, flying to the Sundance Film Festival, seeing her face on-screen. But when the film fades from view and the realities of her life set in, AnnMarie’s grit and determination are the only tools left to keep her moving forward.

Told with remarkable compassion and based on the real-life story of Anna Simpson, whom the author met during the filming of the award-winning Our Song, Hannah Weyer’s debut novel is an incredible act of literary ventriloquism that powerfully illuminates the lives of the urban unseen.

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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
07/23/2013
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780385537339
ASIN:
B00BE255T4
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Hannah Weyer. (2013). On the Come Up: A Novel, Based on a True Story. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Hannah Weyer. 2013. On the Come Up: A Novel, Based On a True Story. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Hannah Weyer, On the Come Up: A Novel, Based On a True Story. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Hannah Weyer. On the Come Up: A Novel, Based On a True Story. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 15:49:13
Date Updated:
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        Hannah Weyer is a filmmaker whose narrative and documentary films have been screened at the Human Rights Watch and the New York Film Festivals and have won awards at the Sundance, Locarno, Melbourne, Doubletake, and South by Southwest Film Festivals. Her screenwriting credits include Life Support (2007), directed by Nelson George, which earned a Golden Globe Award for its lead actress, Queen Latifah. Weyer has worked with teens in the media arts for the past fifteen years and, along with her husband, the filmmaker Jim McKay, started an after-school film club at a public high school in Brooklyn. On the Come Up is her first novel.

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On the Come Up
fullDescription

Based on a true story, an impassioned and propulsive debut novel about a headstrong girl from Far Rockaway, Queens, who is trying to find her place in the world
Written in an urban vernacular that’s electrifying and intimate, On the Come Up introduces a heroine whose voice is irrepressible, dynamic, and unstintingly honest. Thirteen-year-old AnnMarie Walker dreams of a world beyond Far Rockaway, where the sway of the neighborhood keeps her tied to old ideas about success. While attending a school for pregnant teens, AnnMarie comes across a flyer advertising movie auditions in Manhattan. Astonishingly, improbably, and four months before she’s due to give birth—she lands a lead role. For a time, AnnMarie soars—acting for the camera, flying to the Sundance Film Festival, seeing her face on-screen. But when the film fades from view and the realities of her life set in, AnnMarie’s grit and determination are the only tools left to keep her moving forward.

Told with remarkable compassion and based on the real-life story of Anna Simpson, whom the author met during the filming of the award-winning Our Song, Hannah Weyer’s debut novel is an incredible act of literary ventriloquism that powerfully illuminates the lives of the urban unseen.

reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: People, four stars
      • content: "Meet AnnMarie. She's 13, pregnant and living in a gang-ridden housing project. Not a promising scenario. But the heroine of Weyer's luminous debut turns out to be a survivor with rare spirit. She gets herself cast in an indie movie, attends its Sundance premiere and then, back in the 'hood, struggles to build a life for herself and her baby. AnneMarie is based on a real person, which makes it all the sweeter to cheer her on."
      • premium: False
      • source: Kerry Washington, actress, Scandal and Django Unchained
      • content: "I couldn't put this book down. This world, this voice, this young woman are all so vividly raw and honest, that my heart was broken open, and I was hooked until the very last page."
      • premium: False
      • source: The Wall Street Journal
      • content: "[Weyer] writes with confidence and agility, and readers will quickly sink into the groove of her storytelling ... AnnMarie's interior monologues feel hypnotic and impromptu, silkily cadenced with what freestyle rappers call flow ... On the Come Up isn't a cloying rags-to-celebrity tale ... 'Having gone out into the world and come back again' gives AnnMarie a glimpse of a future beyond Far Rockaway. Ms. Weyer convincingly charts the brave steps she takes to get there."
      • premium: False
      • source: Tupelo Hassman, author of Girlchild
      • content: "I fell in love with AnnMarie Walker, a hopeful and headstrong heroine who invents her own chances, turning the smallest opportunities into rare achievements. Here's a book for anyone who's ever seen the way the sun shines in a classroom they cannot enter and still wanted that light to shine on them. First you have to want it and this is how it's done, from victim to victor. A remarkable gift to readers."
      • premium: False
      • source: Jonathan Odell, author of The Healing
      • content: "Pitch-perfect. It's impossible not to root for AnnMarie, a heroine as resilient as she is vulnerable. Weyer is a deeply humane writer who pulls the reader into an inner-city world that's utterly distinct, yet profoundly relatable."
      • premium: False
      • source: San Francisco Chronicle
      • content: "Hannah Weyer proves to be a formidable ventriloquist ... [C]onvincing and colorful ... [A] moving account of AnnMarie's struggle to ... leverage her experiences into a better life."
      • premium: False
      • source: Publishers Weekly
      • content: "A vibrant debut novel ... Weyer's compassionate storytelling lends her compelling novel an inspiring pathos without losing its sharp, realistic edge."
      • premium: False
      • source: Booklist
      • content: "AnnMarie is a tenacious and lovable character. It is easy to root for her as she gropes and stumbles her way through the lessons of life without the benefit of role models or money, and the conclusions she comes to are surprisingly pertinent for all. Fans of Sapphire's Push will especially appreciate the honesty and realism of filmmaker and first-novelist Weyer's writing."
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        May 6, 2013
        This vibrant debut novel based on a real-life story from indie filmmaker Weyer is set in the urban community of Far Rockaway, Queens, and explores the struggles of a local girl trying to carve out a life beyond the expected. When AnnMarie Walker starts eighth grade, she knows that having brand-name jeans and the best voice in her music class doesn’t mean much unless you can back it up with attitude. Her sass attracts the attention of Darius Greene and their romance turns a naïve AnnMarie into an expectant mother at 14. As her belly grows and the relationship takes a violent turn, AnnMarie lands a role in an indie film that expands her world and takes her to Sundance. AnnMarie’s journey to make it as an actor is as rocky as the first few years of single motherhood, and she faces the grim reality of what it takes to succeed in work, family, and love without advantages. Weyer skillfully handles each phase of AnnMarie’s life with a tonality that serves her growing maturity and shifting goals. Weyer’s compassionate storytelling and experience as a mentor for at-risk youth lends her compelling novel an inspiring pathos without losing its sharp, realistic edge. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        May 15, 2013
        Thirteen-year-old AnnMarie lives life on the edge in Far Rockaway, Queens, but despite all the odds, she's ultimately triumphant. Weyer presents an urban nightmare that's a deplorable part of too many adolescent lives. AnnMarie lives with her mom, Blessed, and grandmother in the rough, unruly and blighted community of "Far Rock." She tries to earn extra money for school clothes by selling frozen Kool-Aid and peanut butter punch on the beaches, but she aspires to wear Jordache rather than the polka-dot dresses favored by her mother. School presents its own problems, both academic and social. Skipping school becomes routine since, after all, it's boring and irrelevant. Much more seductive is the prospect of hanging out with cool friends and smoking weed. School is also full of taunting students, fights in the hallway and the threat of suspension. The only saving grace is choir, for there, AnnMarie has a caring teacher, Mr. Preston, but also The Voice--she can really rock a song. She begins seeing Darius, a high school dropout with no prospects. He gets her pregnant and promises to marry her when she's 18. But he's not the most trustworthy: Despite his promises, he doesn't show up at Lamaze classes. One day, AnnMarie sees a poster for musical tryouts: "Girls Wanted. All Shapes and Sizes. No Model Types. Come as You Are." Needless to say, this starts a new trajectory for AnnMarie's sense of self and her incipient career. Weyer writes with an ear for authentic urban teen patois, but no matter how authentic, it's ultimately wearing on the reader.

        COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        July 1, 2013

        Written in realistic-sounding urban vernacular, this first novel by a documentary filmmaker/screenwriter drops readers into the life of street-smart AnnMarie Walker of Far Rockaway, Queens, a New York City neighborhood known for gang violence, Section 8 housing, and lack of reliable public transportation. AnnMarie's story is based on the real-life Anna Simpson, a Far Rockaway teen whom the author met while working on a film with her husband. The book's cover design should draw in fans of urban or street lit. Others may have to be persuaded to discover the touching story buried deep in this novel's gritty realism--much as AnnMarie's vulnerability hides beneath a tough exterior. VERDICT This moving novel about coming of age in a place with few options for at-risk youth should appeal to readers of Sapphire's Push and Tracy Brown's White Lines for its portrayal of young African Americans yearning for more than what is on offer, and maybe to fans of Junot Diaz's This Is How You Lose Her for its slang-soaked language and literary toughness.--Laurie Cavanaugh, Holmes P.L., Halifax, MA

        Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        July 1, 2013
        Her dreams focused on rapping and boys, 13-year-old AnneMarie Walker is much like the other girls from Queens, New York, except that she and her boyfriend are already starting a family. For a time, it's the life she's sure she wants. Then, while attending a high school for pregnant girls, she lands a lead role in an indie film, and a whole new world opens up for her. When her relationship becomes abusive, and she is faced with the reality of raising her daughter alone, she grows uncertain about her choices and finds herself rearranging her beliefs about love and stability. Telling her story in halting street language, AnneMarie is a tenacious and lovable character. It is easy to root for her as she gropes and stumbles her way through the lessons of life without the benefit of role models or money, and the conclusions she comes to are surprisingly pertinent for all. Fans of Sapphire's Push (1996) will especially appreciate the honesty and realism of filmmaker and first-novelist Weyer's writing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

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Based on a true story, an impassioned and propulsive debut novel about a headstrong girl from Far Rockaway, Queens, who is trying to find her place in the world
Written in an urban vernacular that’s electrifying and intimate, On the Come Up introduces a heroine whose voice is irrepressible, dynamic, and unstintingly honest. Thirteen-year-old AnnMarie Walker dreams of a world beyond Far Rockaway, where the sway of the neighborhood keeps her tied to old ideas about success. While attending a school for pregnant teens, AnnMarie comes across a flyer advertising movie auditions in Manhattan. Astonishingly, improbably, and four months before she’s due to give birth—she lands a lead role. For a time, AnnMarie soars—acting for the camera, flying to the Sundance Film Festival, seeing her face on-screen. But when the film fades from view and the realities of her life set in, AnnMarie’s grit and determination are the only tools left to keep...

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