The Weekly Reader is currently reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. His debut novel from 2019 follows Hiram Walker, who loses his mother and gains a special power from her during the pre-Civil War period. He goes through a near-death experience and finds the will to escape enslavement with his newfound powers, traveling across the North and South alike, discovering the various dangers of these environments. Hiram, through these conflicts and more tries to save his family he left for his own freedom.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American author and journalist whose work expands from writing editorial pieces for Time and The Atlantic, non-fiction works, children's books, and also for Marvel and DC Comics.