Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

I really enjoyed this middle grade novel about an aspiring journalist who finds herself inspired by Ida B. Wells! After checking out an autobiography of Ida B. Wells, Indigo discovers letters written from Ida to an unnamed friend. She begins writing back to Ida and finds herself inspired by Ida's legacy to take on her own personal challenges.

I love stories of contemporary teens/children being inspired by historical figures, like Robin Talley's "Pulp" or Randi Pink's "We Are the Scribes," and this is kind of like that but in a middle grade setting. I think this would be a really great transitional book for a tween getting ready to graduate from middle grade to YA books.

I'm looking forward to reading more from this author! I'll be recommending this to fans of Lisa Moore Ramee or Janae Marks.

Indigo and Ida was a slow paced book for me. I liked the premise, but I didn't connect with the plot. It wasn't for me, but it might be for you.

Indigo and Ida
by Heather Murphy Capps
Pub Date 04 Apr 2023
Lerner Publishing Group,Carolrhoda Books
Children's Fiction| Middle Grade| OwnVoices


Netgalley, Lerner Publishing Group, and Carolholda Books provided me with a copy of Indigo and Ida for review:


Eighth grader Indigo becomes popular for the first time after uncovering an unfair school policy.


Suddenly, friends who drifted away want to hang out again. As Indigo observes, disciplinary policies at the school seem particularly harsh on students of color. She wants to keep investigating, but her friends say she's making it up.


In the meantime, Indigo stumbles upon a book written by Black journalist and activist Ida B. Wells with private letters inside. Indigo is forced to choose between keeping quiet or fighting for justice as she reads about Ida's lifelong battle against racism.


I give Indigo and Ida five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

This book would be great for younger readers. While it is relatable (it covers the "drama" of middle school"), it also introduces a key historical figure, Ida B. Wells. The students will be learning about racial issues while they enjoy the book. This was a fun and quick read. I found myself laughing at how "important" it is to discuss school issues such as having Poptarts in the vending machines.

Indigo and Ida is a special well written middle grade novel that goes back and forth between the past and the present. This novel covers a lot of themes and topics and will get readers thinking and discussing. Recommended for all home, classroom, and school libraries

Indigo and Ida - Middle school is rough and Indigo sees that not all students are treated fairly. Standing up against the popular crowd and the "powers that be" isn't an easy task, especially for a middle school student. Inspired by letters from Ida B. Wells, Indigo takes on the task of confronting racism in her school.  Friendships are tested, while Indigo learns to trust in her beliefs.

Indigo is a budding reporter who sets off in getting herself sent to detention to report on an injustice she thinks is going on. The story she finds ends of being bigger than she could have ever thought. While in detention the teacher gives the students an assignment, pick a book about an influencer and right a paper on it. Indigo finds a book about Ida B. Wells. When she opens it she realizes that the book holds more than what it first appears to be and maybe it will help her uncover the truth of everything happening at her school.

Middle school is such a weird time for children. The hormones and all the changes are difficult to deals with and we see Indigo and her friends try to tackle these changes. These changes are especially hard when race, gender identity, classism, and popularity come into play. The parallels between Indigo and Ida!!! Those parallels helped Indigo search within her herself and find who she truly is, what she believes in and what she stands for. I don’t really agree with most school reading list but this book should be on all middle school reading lists. I look forward to reading more from this author.

This beautiful book follows middle grade student indigo as she starts her investigative journalism right at the beginning of the book. When indigo notices some unjust behavior at her school, she takes it upon herself to try her best to root it out through her own the way this book blends the history of ida through letters with what indigo is facing at that time wonderfully. I enjoyed every moment in this book, thank you so much to the publisher for letting me read an advanced copy.

Indigo and Ida was a great realistic fiction book with sprinkles of history. The way Ida B Wells' words came to Indigo at the time she needed them most was really beautiful. I also love books about kids being activists and this book had it front and center!

Indigo and Ida follows the story of Indigo, an aspiring journalist as she discovers racist practices within her school. As she attempts to make decisions on whether she will speak up or be quiet and get along, she finds letters written by Ida B. Wells in a copy of her biography.

Within this book, Heather Murphy Capps does a great job of bringing forward the racism faced by Black students in a way that I think will educate young readers without being too didactic. Many middle grade novels which deal with social justice issues, I’ve noticed being a bit didactic in how they approach them, and Capps is able to avoid this in her writing. The book draws from Black history and uses it as a way to empower the main character Indigo.I found Indigo’s personality to be realistic and her struggles to feel real. This book feels similar to the YA novel We Are the Scribes by Randi Pink in its themes and presentation, but written for a younger audience. Overall, the story was engaging and I really enjoyed the character of Indigo. I would recommend this for the middle grade reader in your life.
Thank you Netgally and Carolrhoda Books for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is chockful of plot: highlighting injustice in the school system + middle school drama + Ida B. Wells magical realism and it really never slows down. I liked:
*the complex but loving sibling relationship between Indigo and her brother
*Indigo's growth and struggles with wanting to be popular even if it means being less herself.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much more I enjoyed. I have very low tolerance for catty middle school drama (everyone was so mean ༼☯﹏☯༽ and I just couldn't) and in many places it just felt like so many issues were crammed in making every moment of the book exhausting to read. I also wished it was in first person, because sometimes - especially at the beginning - it was hard to really understand Indigo's thoughts and motivations.

I really enjoyed witnessing Indigo’s journey as she took inspiration from Ida to continue fighting for justice. This story reminded me of a cross between Dear Martin by Nic Stone and The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown.

I was completely blown away with this middle grade novel about Indigo, who is an aspiring journalist. She intentionally causes problems in school with hopes of getting detention. Her goal is to find supporting evidence concerning discrimination that occurs on school campus. While in detention she finds a book about investigative journalist, activist, and early leader of the civil rights movement, Ida B Wells. She decided to run for class President to make a change. Social change is never easy and she finds herself receiving hate and negative comments from the school’s social media platform, “MyTube”.

While flipping through the Ida B Wells book she finds hand written letters from Ida. The letters provide her with guidance and encouragement to keep fighting the good fight.

I was very impressed with the hard hitting topics within this book. Not only did it target racism straight on, it also touched on issues of women’s rights, health care, and discrimination. I loved how true historical facts of Ida B Wells was incorporated in the forms of letters. Very intriguing way to include history without it being boring for middle age readers. Such a great book for all ages.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for an advanced release copy for an exchange of my honest review/ opinion of the book.

Biracial middle school student Indigo is not happy with how things are being run at her school. She does her own investigative reporting to uncover inequities. While serving detention, she ends up with a book about Ida B. Wells. In that book are loose letters that appear to be written by Ida herself. Although I was rooting for Indigo, the book seemed a bit contrived and convenient. I'm curious what middle school readers will think of it.

A powerful and meaningful book that is a MUST read for middle grade readers. This book unflinchingly tackles racism and feminism that will make readers want to take a stand themselves.

Indigo and Ida is an excellent book about standing up for what matters. Indigo is a budding journalist who uses a school media platform to report on injustices she sees at her school. With the initial success of her reporting, Indigo decides to run for student council so that she can help make real change. But as her reporting becomes more intense, tensions arise between her and her friends and classmates, who think she should lighten up. However, Indigo will not give up. She is inspired by Ida B. Wells, whose letters she has found in the back of a copy of Ida B. Wells' biography. Indigo makes connections between Ida's struggles, the struggles of her fellow marginalized students, and a local incident in which an elderly Black man with dementia was turned away from a hospital, which led to community protests.

Indigo and Ida is a fantastic book that sheds light on racial and social injustices that occur in schools as well as in larger communities, and what people can do to stand up against those injustices. It is well written and fast paced to keep readers engaged and rooting for Indigo. Highly recommended.

In the middle-grade novel Indigo and Ida by Heather Murphy Capps (Carolrhoda Books, April 2023), teenager Indigo Fitzgerald discovers a biography (with loose personal letters) about the nineteenth-century investigative writer Ida B. Wells. As she reads of Ida’s reporting on frequent lynchings in the South during the post-Reconstruction era, Indigo is inspired to focus her campaign to be student president on real issues in her middle school, especially the racist disciplinary policies of the school’s principal. As she struggles with her dedication to her work and also her rocky friendships, she finds her own strengths and delights in her life’s purpose.


Indigo’s eight grade struggles initially focus on the difficulties of changing friendships as her long-time friends are now drifting away into new interests and friendships. She desperately longs to reunite with them and is delighted to find that her most recent report brings her into the popular school-wide spotlight. But as she focuses on the role of race in her principal’s decisions in her reporting, her “troublesome” and “serious” nature takes away her popularity and she questions what she is fighting for.

At the beginning of Indigo’s story, she finds a biography of Ida B. Wells and personal, signed letters fall out of the book. Her persistence nicely aligns with Ida’s story. Both Indigo and Ida consider themselves investigative reporters. Both are exposed to persistent racism and empathize with those who face such difficulties. While the real Ida wrote about her experiences and wrote for journals and newspapers, Indigo uses a school-district-wide vlogging platform to share her stories. I loved her update to the format.

I appreciated that Indigo’s story made parallels between the unfairness of the school’s racism to the issues facing her friend’s LGBTQ sibling. Her story frame of sharing the historic letters wonderfully tied the fight for civil rights post-Reconstruction into the present. Although in reality, the quoted letters were not actually Ida’s words, they were based on Ida’s own autobiographical writing. The simplified language will help middle-grade readers readily understand her story today.

Indigo and Ida is not without some plot issues for me. First, I loved that Ida’s “glittering” handwriting was an inspiration, but adult-me struggled with the impossibility that letters from this co-founder of the NAACP would remain outside of museums 100 years later, especially since in the novel the original owner of the letters never came to claim the lost book. Any person with such a treasure would have known it and eagerly sought their return. Also, Indigo’s story takes place over just one week, which likewise felt unreal. So much happens in this book, including running an entire student presidential campaign, that I felt months had passed.

For young readers, it’s likely that these plot points will not bother them. I loved that this important “influencer” in American history has been highlighted in a novel of this kind. I believe it’s time I bring her books and her story back to the top of my TBR pile. Can anyone recommend a great biography?

Indigo like to be an investigative reporter for her middle school. She is keenly aware of racism, having seen her mother be able to advocate for her, as a white woman, far more effectively than her father, who is black.

Pursuing a story about how the discipline was lopsided against black, brown and indigenous people, she gets herself thrown into detention so she can check what she has heard herself.

But her white friends just want her to not be so intense, so just go with the flow, and she shouldn’t worry about detention. As long as she is good, it shouldn’t be her concern. They want her to be normal.

While in detention, she finds the autobiography of Ida B Wells. She sees in her stories her stories as well. That they have very similar paths. And so she decides justice is better than being normal, and continues to do her story.

I really like how mysterious letters supposedly written by Ida to someone looking at her book. And of course, having Ida Be Wells is fine to highlight. Hopefully, having bits of her stories will get middle grade readers interested in learning more about her.

Indigo is too intense for her friends, but I loved her as a character, and will miss seeing bits of her life. I highly recommend this book for lovers of a take on historical fiction woven into the present day.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. Book comes out April 4, 2023. .

Didn't get a chance to finish this in time, but bought and will finish reading later. Having trouble connecting to Indigo, and I'm not fully sure why yet, but I really am pulled in by the premise and Indigo's journalism desire to create positive change.