One night, Kev takes part in a robbery, presumably with these young men.
One officer hits him and handcuffs him, only to release him. The police arrive and Kev gets into a verbal dispute with them. He trades insults with them before going inside to get a sandwich. Some time later, Kev has become friends with the young men who hang out in front of the bodega. Their mother tells Kev that Ella is angry and “she needs to go be with herself for a little bit” (46). Ella says, “Something bad is gonna happen” (45) and then she disappears. Another night, he comes home and finds Ella watching a news story on television about a Black man named Sean Bell who was shot and killed by the police. One night, Kev returns home to find Ella using her powers to choke their mother. He watches as the police arrive and start harassing the young men, making them get on the ground and then handcuffing them, only to release them moments later. Outside the bodega, Kev runs into some young men who tease him for being so smart. Kev is a bright student with a crush on a girl named Jamila who works at the nearby bodega. Ella is using her powers in new ways, exploding the heads of the rats that infest their apartment.
In Part II, Ella, her brother Kev, and their mother are living in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Amid the chaos, a leader from Ella's church picks Ella and Grandma up in his car and takes them to the hospital, explaining that Ella's mother is in labor.
One day, a riot breaks out after police officers being tried for using excessive force against a Black man named Rodney King are acquitted. It is 1992 and the streets are full of gang violence. Ella's mother is pregnant with a baby Ella knows will be a boy. She sees the future violent death of her neighbor's baby, Jelani, who will be felled by a gang member's stray bullet at age 10. Ella has a “Thing” (9) - her term for the superpowers that allow her to see into the future and move about through astral projection. A child named Ella is living there with her mother and a woman she calls Grandma even though she is not her biological grandmother. Part I of Riot Baby takes place in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Onyebuchi, Tochi.
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