Stained

In this stunning novel in verse, a boy watches his town grow bitterly divided from behind the lens of his camera... until he finds the courage to stand up for what’s right. A story of bravery, allyship, and risks worth taking.

Twelve-year-old Ulysses is new in town. Between his unusual name and the port-wine stain splashed across his face, he’s hardly looking for more attention. Uly is happiest hidden behind the lens of a camera, where he can obscure his appearance while taking in the world around him.  

Luckily, his middle school needs a photographer for their mural project, and Uly gets to watch (and snap) as students come together to paint a local artist’s design. The mural is perfect: powerful words, images from nature, and even a painting mistake transformed into a tiny rainbow.  

Except that tiny rainbow becomes a GIANT problem. 

Murals are supposed 
to bring communities together.
What does it say about
our community, 
that our mural
must be destroyed over
something as innocent 
as a rainbow?

Activism, art, and identity collide in this courageous story based on real-world events. Told in captivating, accessible verse, Rhonda DeChambeau captures a town in crisis and the unlikely heroes who step in to bring their community back together.Rhonda DeChambeau is the author of young adult verse novel Top Heavy. She has a degree in Literature from Harvard University and an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. In 2022, she was awarded the coveted Boston Public Library Writer-in-Residence fellowship. When she's not writing, she works in Human Resources for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Rhonda is a lifelong resident of Massachusetts and lives south of Boston with her family.