Kelis Rowe’s debut Young Adult (YA) novel is a tender story of love and loss, in settings that will be familiar to many Memphians.

The now-closed Crystal Palace skating rink, located in real life on South Third Street, is where the two protagonists in “Finding Jupiter” first meet during the summer. From there, their journeys intertwine in ways that neither would imagine at their first acquaintance.

Ray, from Whitehaven, is heading back for her senior year at a Rhode Island boarding school. Orion, originally from Orange Mound, is heading to Washington, D.C., on a swimming and academic scholarship at Howard University.

But “Finding Jupiter,” published May 31 by Random House Children’s Books, has much more Memphis to be found within its pages.

There’s Beale Street, Central Gardens, Riverside Drive, the Davis YMCA and “bridge lights,” as well as references to “P. Valley” and “the” high school, a nickname for Central High School.

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That’s because Rowe, who now lives in Austin, Texas, is originally from Memphis. She grew up in Whitehaven and would walk to Crystal Palace. She’s lived in Texas since after graduating from Christian Brothers University in 2001.

But she’ll return to her hometown in June for multiple Memphis book release events, including a summer skate party at East End Skating Center at 5718 Mt. Moriah Road. 

Rowe said she didn’t start reading YA until she was in her 30s, beginning with “The Hunger Games” trilogy from Suzanne Collins. 

In “Finding Jupiter,” she wanted to give Black teens a love story. Black love stories, she found, typically focused on adults.

Another theme in the book is how father-child relationships affect romantic relationships. Rowe said she wanted to explore that in her book because popular portrayals of Black fathers are often unfavorable.

“The underlying reason that I write, in general, that I’m writing this book, my next book, and every book probably for a while, is joy,” she said.

The focus on Memphis in her work is similar; when the city shows up in the media, it’s often not portrayed positively.

“I want to shine a light on how much joy exists in Black teen life,” Rowe said, adding that she wants to give Memphis teens, in particular, a reprieve. “This book is a summer love story. It’s bright. It’s all the fun; it’s all the levity that we experience in the summertime. I just want to give them that breath of fresh air.”

Although Rowe said she was always a strong writer in school, she hadn’t considered writing a book for many years. After starting a blog to document her new life in Texas in the early 2000s, family and friends suggested that she should. 

“Finding Jupiter” includes a writer as a character, too.

The book’s chapters each begin with found poetry crafted from some of Rowe’s personal favorites, “The Great Gatsby” and “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”

Found poetry uses existing texts — with additions and deletions to the copy — to reframe the work and create new meanings and whole poems. 

“I remember being a teenager and how much writing poetry helped me survive,” Rowe said. “I was a loner. I knew a lot of people, but my emotional life was very internal. ... I knew I wanted to include found poetry because I also created (visual) art as a teenager. And I think found poetry is the perfect way to combine the two.”

While attending John P. Freeman Optional School, Rowe said she first read “The Great Gatsby,” adding that it was the book that made her “a reader for pleasure.” 

“The Great Gatsby was the first book that made me emotionally invested in a character,” she said. “I was so emotionally invested in Jay Gatsby and how unfair life was for him.”

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a book that Rowe said she returned to again and again, each time finding another lesson or way to reflect on being a woman. 

After “Finding Jupiter,” Rowe has another YA romance slated, also featuring Black teens from Memphis, but this time they have been transported to the Great Smoky Mountains.

“For me, it’s always going to be classic YA love stories starring Black kids in stories that we’ve never seen.” 

Novel bookstore will host a book launch at its location at 387 Perkins Ext. 6 p.m. Saturday, June 4, and a summer skate party noon Sunday, June 5, at East End Skating Center, 5718 Mt. Moriah Road. DeMoir Books & Things, 739 N. White Station Road, will host Rowe in conversation with Memphis writer Kristen Lee 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 7.