From the Jared Peter Christensen is running for president (of the Junior Class Council at his university, but still). His platform is solid--built on increased equity and inclusion in all sectors of campus life--and he’s got a good chance of beating the deeply conservative business major he’s running against. But then a transfer student enters the race and calls Jared out for his big-talk/little-action way of moving. But what’s the right way to bring about change? As the campaign heats up, feelings are caught, and juicy secrets come to light, and Jared writes letters to his deceased friend Manny, hoping to make sense of his confusion. What’s a white boy to do when love and politics collide? <New York Times< bestselling author Nic Stone writes from a new perspective in this exciting final chapter of the <Dear Martin <series;that examines privilege, love, and our political climate.

Autorentext

Nic Stone

Klappentext

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Dear Martin comes the thrilling final installment of the series, set in college and offering a new perspective on privilege, love, and our political climate.
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**A YALSA BEST FICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS BOOK OF THE YEAR

A CBC Kids’ Top Ten Favorite in 9th-12th grade category
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Jared Peter Christensen is running for president (of the Junior Class Council at his university, but still). His platform is solid—built on increased equity and inclusion in all sectors of campus life—and he’s got a good chance of beating the deeply conservative business major he’s running against.

But when a transfer student enters the race, she calls Jared out for his big-talk/little-action way of moving. Dylan’s accusations make him question just how “woke” he really is. But what’s the right way to bring about change? As the campaign heats up, feelings are caught, and juicy secrets come to light, and Jared writes letters to his deceased friend Manny, hoping to make sense of his confusion. What’s a white boy to do when love and politics collide? Will he have to choose between his head and his heart?

**★ "Stone has done a brilliant job with this memorable character-driven novel. . . . Dear Nic: congratulations on another great success."—*****Booklist, starred review

*****★ "A startlingly effective snapshot of cis white male frustration and growth."—**School Library Journal, starred review

Leseprobe
1

We the People

Jared Peter Christensen is questioning his life choices.

Again.

(You’d think the guy would learn, considering how many idiotic binds he’s gotten himself into over the years, but apparently not.)

Granted, the thing he’s gotten himself into this time isn’t stupid, necessarily. Just . . . not super well thought out. That’s the reality smacking him upside the head as he sits in an exceedingly boring meeting he decided to attend a mere seven minutes before it started. Which then involved a sprint across campus that left him out of breath and extra conspicuous when he came in four minutes late.

He reads the slide currently on the screen behind the head of the sitting UCC president--a pretty Korean American girl named Ari Park, who is droning on at the podium:

Undergraduate College Council

MISSION STATEMENT:

To accurately represent the voices, perspectives, and concerns of all undergraduates while protecting their rights and freedoms.

His eyes drift to the door . . . but of course he can’t walk out early after walking in late. He also put his name on that damn list, which, as Dad would say, means he has officially committed himself to this path. “Your name in your handwriting is a declaration that you’ll see something through,” Bill Christensen said to six-year-old Jared when he made him sign his first contract. It bound him to a set of chores in exchange for the funds that went into a 529 college savings plan.

Jared sighs and shakes his head. The regret is too real.

How did he even get here?

The slide changes to an overdone graphic listing college policy changes the Undergraduate College Council has enacted since its founding.

It’s really his Constitutional Law professor Dr. Yeh’s fault. Just before dismissing class earlier, she made it a point to announce that the UCC would be holding its first meeting for class officer elections. And she looked right at Jared as she said it.

He could swear she was challenging him. Especially since the look came on the heels of a class discussion about the current state of democracy. One that may have gotten a little heated at the end. Jared hadn’t really meant to “go off,” as one of his Black classmates put it, but he also couldn’t sit there in silence as the guy who became his nemesis on the first day of class--an asshat-and-a-half “blue-blooded Florida boy” (his words) named John Preston LePlante IV--acted like he wrote the Constitution and could change it at will. The whole exchange is seared into Jared’s memory:

John Preston: You guys are so stuck on some perceived threat to voting rights, you’re missing the forest for the trees. The truest threat to our republic is getting so far away from the values this country was founded on, the nation itself becomes unrecognizable.

Imani: And what are those values, John Preston?

(Imani Williams is one of three Black students in the class. Living with an African American roommate who survived both a wrongful arrest and a police shooting their senior year of high school makes it impossible for Jared not to notice these things.)

John Preston: That question just proves my point. Only a person with zero concept of what it means to be American would ask that.

Imani: Me asking you to clarify your assertion with specific examples means I have “zero concept” of what it means to be American?

John Preston: I’m just saying if you knew, you wouldn’t have to ask. As such, that question isn’t worthy of an answer.

Jared: [Officially furious.] Dude, you deciding someone’s very valid question “isn’t worthy of an answer” is precisely the opposite of civility and open-mindedness. Both of which were “American values” at some point. I know we’re talking about the Constitution, but if you read the Declaration of Independence, the bulk of the colonists’ gripes with the king came from him having an attitude like yours.

Imani: [Snapping her fingers.] Go off then, Jared!

In the moment, her approval made Jared’s heart grow three sizes, à la the Grinch. He had to resist thanking her out loud, and he knows he turned very red. But then Dr. Yeh made her little election-interest-meeting announcement. And she’d eyeballed the crap out of Jared when she said the words Junior Class Council president.

He tried to let it go. He really did. Shoved it out of his mind, went to his other two classes, and even popped by the frat house. But the moment he was alone in his apartment, all Jared could think about was Dr. Yeh’s eagle-eyed stare.

A door opens behind him, and Jared fights the urge to look over his shoulder as Ari goes on to her next slide: another overdone graphic listing the SLOs (student-led organizations) the UCC works with.

Man, what is he doing here?

The screen goes dark (thank god!) and the lights in the room brighten as Ari asks if there are any questions. Jared’s tempted to raise his hand just to make it seem like he was paying attention--Christensens commit once they’re committed. But then a girl in the first row shoots her arm into the air with the velocity of a UFC punch, and someone s…