Content levels
Trigger warnings
Hero archetypes
Heroine archetypes
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
Themes
Synopsis
In this “bold and imaginative” (Tananarive Due) “truly powerful and riveting story” (Booklist) set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search of answers. In a world without white people, what does it mean to be Black? One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served his time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old left behind by her white mother and step-family. Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search for answers. But neither of them are prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it. Heading south toward what is now called the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down. Brimming with heart and humor, “this stunning allegory will spark much discussion” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) about the power of community and connection, about healing and self-actualization, and a reckoning with what it means to be Black in America, in both their world and ours.
Tags
Is Sky Full of Elephants appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 16 and up.
This literary speculative fiction explores race, identity, and family through an allegorical lens where all white people disappear. Contains discussion of wrongful incarceration, racial trauma, and the psychological effects of a mass cataclysmic event.
What to know going in
This book has mild violence, no sexual content, and moderate language. Content notes include mass death, abandonment, and trauma (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Teens interested in thought-provoking speculative fiction that tackles big questions about identity, race, and what happens when society changes overnight will find this compelling.