Split the Sky

Arnold, Marie. Split the Sky
September 9, 2025 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Lala Russell lives in Davey, Texas, a town known for it's stark racial divisions, with the north part being home to mainly white residents, and the south to Black ones. A local group, People of Color for Progress, have been protesting things like the display of the Confederate flag at Lala's school, and have funded a new apartment building in the north side of town. Lala is more interested in her music than in joining the Black alliance at her school. She and her brothers, Aaron and Arlo, are concerned that their father is dating the white owner of an art gallery, especially their aunt Janice is not fond of her. Lala occasionally gets "flashes"; glimpses into the future that her grandmother and deceased mother also experienced. Gray flashes can be changed, but red flashes cannot. When Lala gets a golden flash, her grandmother lets her know that this cannot be changed, because it is something that will happen for the good of the Black community. Since the event is a boy Lala's age being shot and killed by a white homeowner, she wants to change it anyway. In order to figure out which of three boys it is, Lala joins the Black Alliance and interviews the boys to try to figure out who is the one to be shot so that she can stop it. Wes wants to be a music therapist because he has a brother with Austism Spectrum Disorder, Ford works in a day care and is active in the protests for having the Confederate flags removed, and Alex is a violin player on whom Lala has a crush. To help her understand her abilities more, Lala's grandmother takes her to New Orleans, where they visit a "jump house", a place where the sould of dead children gather before their deaths can be avenged and they can move on. Back in Davey, the Faith and Honor division of the KKK is causing more and more problems, and on the day that the shooting is supposed to occur, fire is set to the new apartment building. Will Lala be able to change the flash that she has seen?

Strengths: Lala just wants to play her cello and get on with her life, but the reality is that she has a very special gift, and the world we live in is very troubled. Instead of just focusing on her music, she has to contend with seeing glimpses of troubling events and deciding what to do about them. It doesn't help that she feels her gift is responsible for her mother's death. Her grandmother is very supportive, and there's just enough information about how this gift is passed down through the family to help the reader understand without bogging the story down in details. Ripped from the headlines topics are important ones, and it's fascinating to see how racial inequity impacts Lala and the boys that she interviews. I especially liked that Lala is somewhat older, like Ayomide in this author's I Rise. 
Weaknesses: The ending, which I don't want to spoil, is really, really sad. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like the mix of fantasy and racial issues in McBride's Gone Wolf or  Shawl's Speculation.