“Lovely One: A Memoir Adapted for Young Adults” by Ketanji Brown Jackson
c.2026,
Bright Matter Books
$20.99
351 pages
You knew it years ago.
When you were little, and people asked you what you wanted to do when you grew up, the answer was obvious: you had a dream and an idea. Sure, other interests caught your eye once in a while, but you always came back to that one plan, this one thing. As in the new book, “Lovely One” by Ketanji Brown Jackson (adapted for young readers), you might be a kid, but you’ve always known what you wanted.
When she was just four years old, little Ketanji Brown sat with her father at their kitchen table most evenings, watching as he studied his books and prepared for a career in law. He sometimes included his daughter by playfully asking for her advice on his lessons, a memory that stuck with her for the rest of her life and instilled a lifelong interest in legal matters.
Brown Jackson says that she was lucky to have had so many inspirational, focused ancestors to give her family a solid base, and she was fortunate to be born in the fall of 1970, to parents who had worked hard to secure Civil Rights. They encouraged the same activism in their children and expected excellence in their education. For as long as Brown Jackson could remember, they nurtured in her “a spirit of perseverance,” allowed her to participate in extracurricular activities, and helped her seize many opportunities.
She continued to be a good student and a good kid. Then one afternoon, everything clicked into place.
A few days before her twelfth birthday, she says, she discovered a magazine article about a Black woman lawyer who broke ground before Brown Jackson was even born, and it “would extend my horizons.” She realized that the memory of studying with her father “was only the beginning for me,” she says.
Little did she know then that she, too, would break ground someday…
There is, of course, more to author Ketanji Brown Jackson’s story, her career, and her history-making appointment to the Supreme Court, and “Lovely One” brings readers up to date. For a kid, that’s great, but the bigger appeal is in the way the story is told here. In this adaptation for young readers, time is taken to show that Justice Jackson was once an ordinary kid.
Playing, attending classes she loved or disliked, traveling, spending time with her grandparents, getting a new sibling—these are experiences Jackson shares with young readers, and they’re very engaging. Her narrative, though using adult-level language, is easy to grasp and relatable for her audience, and her excitement at some of her life’s highlights is delightfully charming. Jackson never talks down to kids who read this book, nor to the grown-ups who might find it less daunting than the adult version.
If your 12-and-up student needs a biography or inspiration, start with “Lovely One.”
