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TITLE: The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
AUTHOR: Peniel E. Joseph WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 920 Jos SUMMARY: Reveals a nuanced portrait of two men, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives. |
TITLE: The Black History Book
AUTHOR: Nemata Amelia Blyden WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 973 Bla SUMMARY: Bringing together accounts of significant ideas and milestones in Black history and culture, this book offers an accessible overview of the history of the African continent and its peoples. |
TITLE: And We Rise: The Civil Rights Movement in Poems
AUTHOR: Erica Martin WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 811 Mar SUMMARY: A powerful, impactful, eye-opening journey that explores through the Civil Rights Movement in 1950s-1960s America in spare and evocative verse, with historical photos interspersed throughout. |
TITLE: Ain't Burned All the Bright
AUTHOR: Jason Reynolds; Jason Griffin WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 811 Gri SUMMARY: A smash up of art and text that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right Now. |
TITLE: An African American and Latinx History of the United States
AUTHOR: Paul Ortiz WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 305.8 Ort SUMMARY: A bottom-up history told from the viewpoint of African American and Latinx activists and revealing the radically different ways people of the diaspora addressed issues still plaguing the United States today. |
TITLE: When You Look Like Us
AUTHOR: Pamela N. Harris WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Har - NOVELS SUMMARY: A boy must take up the search for his sister when she goes missing from a neighborhood where Black girls' disappearances are too often overlooked. |
TITLE: The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond
AUTHOR: Brenda Woods WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Woo - NOVELS SUMMARY: A biracial girl finally gets the chance to meet the African American side of her family. |
TITLE: All the Things We Never Knew
AUTHOR: Liara Tamani WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Tam - ROMANCE SUMMARY: Carli and Rex have an immediate connection, an understanding that must mean first love, but family secrets, disappointments--and basketball, which holds center stage in both their lives--all create complications. |
TITLE: When Stars Are Scattered
AUTHOR: Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Jam - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: Omar and his younger brother Hassan live in a refugee camp, and when an opportunity for Omar to get an education comes along, he must decide between going to school every day or caring for his nonverbal brother in this intimate and touching portrayal of family and daily life in a refugee camp. |
TITLE: Wake: The Hidden History of the Women-Led Slave Revolts
AUTHOR: Rebecca Hall WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 306.3 Hal SUMMARY: Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake looks at enslaved Black women warriors and provides insight into the struggle to survive whole as a Black woman in today's America. |
TITLE: Run: Book One
AUTHOR: John Lewis WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 323 Lew - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: Tells the true story of John Lewis and his colleagues in the movement following the historic success of the Selma campaign and the Voting Rights Act. |
TITLE: The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
AUTHOR: Nikole Hannah-Jones WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 973 Han SUMMARY: The 1619 Project tells [a] new origin story, placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country. |
TITLE: Just Us: An American Conversation
AUTHOR: Claudia Rankine WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 305.8 Ran SUMMARY: This brilliant arrangement of essays, poems, and images includes the voices and rebuttals of others: white men in first class responding to, and with, their white male privilege; a friend's explanation of her infuriating behavior at a play; and women confronting the political currency of dying their hair blond, all running alongside fact-checked notes and commentary that complements Rankine's own text, complicating notions of authority and who gets the last word. |
TITLE: So You Want to Talk About Race
AUTHOR: Ijeoma Oluo WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 305.8 Olu SUMMARY: A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide. |
TITLE: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
AUTHOR: Bryan Stevenson WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 353.4 Ste SUMMARY: The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice. |
TITLE: Wings of Ebony
AUTHOR: J. Elle WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Ell - FANTASY SUMMARY: Taken away from her Houston neighborhood by the father she never knew in the aftermath of her mother’s murder, a Black teen arrives on a hidden island of magic, where she discovers her half-god identity and responsibility in helping protect the mortal and immortal worlds. |
TITLE: This Poison Heart
AUTHOR: Kalynn Bayron WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Bay - FANTASY SUMMARY: Teenaged Briseis, who possesses a supernatural power over plants, even poisonous ones, inherits a dilapidated estate in rural New York and must protect herself and her family from centuries-old secrets that threaten their lives. |
TITLE: Skin of the Sea
AUTHOR: Natasha Bowen WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Bow - FANTASY SUMMARY: Simi, a Mami Wata--a type of mermaid who collects the souls of those who die at sea--goes against an ancient decree by saving the life of a living boy and must now make amends in order to save the fate of all Mami Wata and the world as she knows it. |
TITLE: A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic
AUTHOR: Edited by Patricia Caldwell WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Pho - FANTASY SUMMARY: Black girls, including gender non-conforming individuals, star in this collection of sixteen stories of fantasy, science fiction, and magic. |
TITLE: Not So Pure and Simple
AUTHOR: Lamar Giles WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Gil - NOVELS SUMMARY: High school junior Del Rainey unwittingly joins a Purity Pledge class at church, hoping to get closer to his long-term crush, Kiera. |
TITLE: Love Is a Revolution
AUTHOR: Renée Watson WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Wat - ROMANCE SUMMARY: Harlem teenager Nala is looking forward to a summer of movies and ice cream until she falls in love with the very woke Tye and pretends to be a social activist. |
TITLE: Piecing Me Together
AUTHOR: Renée Watson WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Wat - NOVELS SUMMARY: Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls. |
TITLE: Ikenga
AUTHOR: Nnedi Okorafor WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Oko - FANTASY SUMMARY: In southeastern Nigeria, twelve-year-old Mnamdi is determined to avenge his police chief father, who was murdered while trying to rid the town of criminals, but Nnamdi feels powerless until he receives a magical object which gives him superpowers. |
TITLE: The Field Guide to the North American Teenager
AUTHOR: Ben Philippe WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Phi - NOVELS SUMMARY: Uprooted from his native Montreal to Austin, Texas, a black French-Canadian teen navigates the joys and clichés of the American high school experience, including falling in love, before challenging himself to accept friendship into his life. |
TITLE: Angel of Greenwood
AUTHOR: Randi Pink WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Pin - HISTORICAL SUMMARY: Angel and Isaiah share a hidden love for Black literature, and now each other, when tragedy and triumph emerge during the Greenwood Massacre of Tulsa, Oklahoma. |
TITLE: Miles Morales, Spider-Man
AUTHOR: Jason Reynolds CALL NUMBER: F Rey - FANTASY SUMMARY: Brooklyn Visions Academy student Miles Morales may not always want to be a super hero, but he must come to terms with his identity-and deal with a villainous teacher-as the new Spider Man. |
TITLE: Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America
AUTHOR: Edited by Ibi Zoboi WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Bla - NOVELS SUMMARY: A collection of coming-of-age short stories that reflect on the African American teenage experience in America. |
TITLE: White Smoke
AUTHOR: Tiffany D. Jackson WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Jac - HORROR SUMMARY: Believing her new home to actually be alive, especially when her brother almost dies, Marigold and her new blended family won't be safe until she brings the truth to light once and for all. |
TITLE: The Taking of Jake Livingston
AUTHOR: Ryan Douglass WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Dou - HORROR SUMMARY: When a murderous ghost begins to haunt sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston, high school soon becomes a different kind of survival game. |
TITLE: Nubia: Real One
AUTHOR: L. L. McKinney WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F McK - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: Nubia has always stood out because of her Amazonian strength, but even though she uses her ability for good she is seen as a threat, so when her best friend Quisha is threatened by a boy who thinks he owns the town, Nubia risks everything to become the hero society tells her she is not. |
TITLE: Grown
AUTHOR: Tiffany D. Jackson CALL NUMBER: F Jac - MYSTERY SUMMARY: When legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots Enchanted Jones at an audition, her dreams of being a famous singer take flight. Until Enchanted wakes up with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night. Who killed Korey Fields? Before there was a dead body, Enchanted's dreams had turned into a nightmare. Because behind Korey's charm and star power was a controlling dark side. Now he's dead, the police are at the door, and all signs point to Enchanted. |
TITLE: The Crossover: The Graphic Novel
AUTHOR: Kwame Alexander; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile. WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Ale - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. |
TITLE: Blackout
AUTHOR: Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Bla - ROMANCE SUMMARY: Six critically acclaimed, bestselling, and award-winning authors bring the glowing warmth and electricity of Black teen love to this interlinked novel of charming, hilarious, and heartwarming stories that shine a bright light through the dark. |
TITLE: A Promised Land
AUTHOR: Barack Obama CALL NUMBER: 921 Oba SUMMARY: Barack Obama, the forty-fourth United States President discusses his life. |
TITLE: The Black Kids
AUTHOR: Christina Hammonds Reed CALL NUMBER: F Ham - NOVELS SUMMARY: With the Rodney King riots closing in on high school senior Ashley and her family, the privileged bubble she has enjoyed, protecting her from the difficult realities most Black people face, begins to crumble. |
TITLE: This Is My America
AUTHOR: Kim Johnson CALL NUMBER: F Joh - NOVELS SUMMARY: While writing letters to Innocence X, a justice-seeking project, asking them to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row, teenaged Tracy takes on another case when her brother is accused of killing his white girlfriend. |
TITLE: Raybearer
AUTHOR: Jordan Ifueko CALL NUMBER: F Ifu - FANTASY SUMMARY: Raised in isolation, Tarisai yearns for the closeness she could have as one of the Crown Prince's Council of 11, but her mother, The Lady, has magically compelled Tarisai to kill the Crown Prince. |
TITLE: I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
AUTHOR: Austin Channing Brown CALL NUMBER: 305.8 Bro SUMMARY: The author provides an eye-opening account of growing up Black, Christian, and female in middle-class white America. |
TITLE: Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March
AUTHOR: Lynda Blackmon Lowery CALL NUMBER: 323.11 Low SUMMARY: Shares the story of the youngest person to complete the Selma to Montgomery March, describing her frequent imprisonments for her participation in nonviolent demonstrations and how she felt about her involvement in Civil Rights events. |
TITLE: A Song Below Water
AUTHOR: Bethany C. Morrow CALL NUMBER: F Mor - FANTASY SUMMARY: A metaphorical tale follows the experiences of a Black teen siren and her haunted best friend, who find themselves targeted by violence when they are unable to hide their supernatural identities in an alternate world that discriminates against magic. |
TITLE: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin
AUTHOR: Roseanne A. Brown CALL NUMBER: F Bro - FANTASY SUMMARY: Malik, a refugee desperate to save his sister, and Karina, a grieving Princess with a mission, vow to destroy each other even as a mutual attraction builds between the two. |
TITLE: Such a Fun Age
AUTHOR: Kiley Reid CALL NUMBER: F Rei - NOVELS SUMMARY: Seeking justice for a young Black babysitter who was wrongly accused of kidnapping by a racist security guard, a successful blogger finds her efforts complicated by a video that reveals unexpected connections. |
TITLE: One of the Good Ones
AUTHOR: Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite CALL NUMBER: F Mou - NOVELS SUMMARY: When teen social activist and history buff Kezi Smith is killed under mysterious circumstances after attending a social justice rally, her devastated sister Happi and their family are left reeling in the aftermath. As Kezi becomes another immortalized victim in the fight against police brutality, Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered. |
TITLE: Legendborn
AUTHOR: Tracy Deonn CALL NUMBER: F Deo - FANTASY SUMMARY: To discover the truth behind her mother's mysterious death, a teen girl infiltrates a magical secret society claiming to be the descendants of King Arthur and his knights. |
TITLE: Let's Talk About Love
AUTHOR: Claire Kann CALL NUMBER: F Kan - ROMANCE SUMMARY: After Alice's asexuality ended her last relationship, she has sworn off dating, until she becomes attracted to her new coworker and now Alice must decide if she's willing to risk their friendship for a love that may not be reciprocated or understood. |
TITLE: Long Way Down: A Graphic Novel
AUTHOR: Jason Reynolds CALL NUMBER: F Rey - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: As Will, fifteen, sets out to avenge his brother Shawn's fatal shooting, seven ghosts who knew Shawn board the elevator and reveal truths Will needs to know. |
TITLE: The Gilded Ones
AUTHOR: Namina Forna CALL NUMBER: F For - FANTASY SUMMARY: Inspired by the culture of West Africa, a feminist fantasy debut traces the experiences of an intuitive girl who is invited to leave her discriminatory village to join the emperor's army of near-immortal women warriors. |
TITLE: The Truths We Hold: An American Journey
AUTHOR: Kamala Harris CALL NUMBER: 921 Har SUMMARY: Harris, Vice President and a former United States senator from California, describes how her upbringing and her career as the district attorney for San Francisco and later as California's attorney general influenced her passion for justice. She communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values and discusses the core truths that unite us and how to best act on them. |
TITLE: You Should See Me in a Crown
AUTHOR: Leah Johnson CALL NUMBER: F Joh - NOVELS SUMMARY: A Black, underprivileged misfit from a wealthy, prom-obsessed midwestern community carefully plans to attend a prestigious medical college before the unexpected loss of her financial aid forces her to compete for her school's prom-queen scholarship. |
TITLE: Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet
AUTHOR: Ta-Nehisi Coates CALL NUMBER: F Coa - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: When a superhuman terrorist group called "The People" sparks a violent uprising, the land of Wakanda, famed for its incredible technology and proud warrior traditions, will be thrown into turmoil; but can its king, the Black Panther, save it from this fate? |
TITLE: Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America
AUTHOR: R. Eric Thomas CALL NUMBER: 814 Tho SUMMARY: R. Eric Thomas didn't know he was different until the world told him so. Everywhere he went--whether it was his rich, mostly white, suburban high school, his conservative Black church, or his Ivy League college in a big city--he found himself on the outside looking in. In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Eric redefines what it means to be an "other" through the lens of his own life experience. |
TITLE: Concrete Rose
AUTHOR: Angie Thomas CALL NUMBER: F Tho - NOVELS SUMMARY: A gang leader's son finds his effort to go straight for the sake of his child challenged by a loved one's brutal murder, in a poignant exploration of Black coming-of-age set 17 years before the events of the award-winning The Hate U Give. |
TITLE: The Hate U Give
AUTHOR: Angie Thomas CALL NUMBER: F Tho - NOVELS SUMMARY: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does-or does not-say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. |
TITLE: Class Act
AUTHOR: Jerry Craft CALL NUMBER: F Cra - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: Eighth grader Drew Ellis recognizes that he isn't afforded the same opportunities, no matter how hard he works, that his privileged classmates at the Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted, and to make matters worse, Drew begins to feel as if his good friend Liam might be one of those privileged kids and is finding it hard not to withdraw, even as their mutual friend Jordan tries to keep their group of friends together. |
TITLE: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
AUTHOR: Isabel Wilkerson CALL NUMBER: 305.5 Wil SUMMARY: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns identifies the qualifying characteristics of historical caste systems to reveal how a rigid hierarchy of human rankings, enforced by religious views, heritage and stigma, impact everyday American lives. |
TITLE: Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard
AUTHOR: Echo Brown CALL NUMBER: F Bro - NOVELS SUMMARY: From age six through her high school valedictory speech, believing she and her mother are wizards helps young Echo cope with poverty, hunger, her mother's drug abuse, and much more. |
TITLE: The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person
AUTHOR: Frederick Joseph CALL NUMBER: 305.8 Jos SUMMARY: Presents race-related anecdotes from the author's past, weaving in his thoughts on why they were hurtful and how he might handle things differently now, in hopes of bringing more race awareness to Americans. |
TITLE: Brown Girl Dreaming
AUTHOR: Jacqueline Woodson WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 921 Woo SUMMARY: The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South. |
TITLE: X
AUTHOR: Illyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Sha - HISTORICAL SUMMARY: Co-written by the best-selling author of Malcolm Little and daughter of Malcolm X, a novel based her father's formative years describes his father's murder, his mother's imprisonment and his challenging effort to pursue an education in law. |
TITLE: Bronx Masquerade
AUTHOR: Nikki Grimes WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Gri - NOVELS SUMMARY: While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates. |
TITLE: Monster: A Graphic Novel
AUTHOR: Walter Dean Myers WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Mye - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: Depicts teen murder defendant Steve Harmon's trial and stint in juvenile detention in striking black-and-white artwork. |
TITLE: Fake ID
AUTHOR: Lamar Giles WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Gil - MYSTERY SUMMARY: When his petty criminal father's activities land the family in the Witness Protection Program, Nick is forced to assume a new identity in a different community where he ruminates on the conspiracy his friend died trying to uncover. |
TITLE: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
AUTHOR: Roxane Gay WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 921 Gay SUMMARY: Roxane Gay addresses the experience of living in a body that she calls 'wildly undisciplined.' She casts an insightful and critical eye over her childhood, teens, and twenties -- including the devastating act of violence that was a turning point at age 12 -- and brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life. With candor, vulnerability, and authority, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. |
TITLE: Kindred
AUTHOR: Octavia E. Butler WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F But - SCIENCE FICTION SUMMARY: A young African-American woman is mysteriously transferred back in time leading to an irresistible curiosity about her family's past. |
TITLE: The Crossover
AUTHOR: Kwame Alexander WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Ale - NOVELS SUMMARY: Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. |
TITLE: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
AUTHOR: Michelle Alexander WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 364 Ale SUMMARY: Argues that mass incarceration of African- and Latino Americans in the United States is a form of social control, and contends the civil rights community needs to become more active in protecting the rights of criminals. |
TITLE: Between the World and Me
AUTHOR: Ta-Nehisi Coates WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 305.8 Coa SUMMARY: The author presents a history of racial discrimination in the United States and a narrative of his own personal experiences of contemporary race relations, offering possible resolutions for the future. |
TITLE: The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood
AUTHOR: Ta-Nehisi Coates WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 921 Coa SUMMARY: A memoir of growing up in the tough world of Baltimore in the 1980s chronicles the relationship between the author and his father, a Vietnam vet and Black Panther affiliate, and his campaign to keep his sons from falling victim to the temptations of the streets. |
TITLE: The Underground Railroad
AUTHOR: Colson Whitehead WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Whi - HISTORICAL SUMMARY: After Cora, a slave in pre-Civil War Georgia, escapes with another slave, Caesar, they seek the help of the Underground Railroad as they flee from state to state and try to evade a slave catcher, Ridgeway, who is determined to return them to the South. |
TITLE: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
AUTHOR: Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 921 X SUMMARY: The Black leader discusses his political philosophy and reveals details of his life, shedding light on the ideas that enabled him to gain the allegiance of a still growing percentage of the Black population. |
TITLE: The Souls of Black Folk
AUTHOR: W. E. B. Du Bois WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 973 Du B SUMMARY: Personal recollections are included in this work depicting the spirit, status, and problems of African Americans since emancipation and reflecting on the history of race and democracy in America. |
TITLE: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race
AUTHOR: Edited by Jesmyn Ward WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 305.896 War SUMMARY: Presents a continuation of James Baldwin's 1963 "The Fire Next Time" that examines racial issues from the past half-century through essays, poems, and memoir pieces by some of the current generation's most original thinkers and writers. |
TITLE: Swing
AUTHOR: Kwame Alexander WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Ale - NOVELS SUMMARY: Noah and his best friend Walt want to become cool, make the baseball team, and win over Sam, the girl Noah has loved for years. When Noah finds old love letters, Walt hatches a plan to woo Sam. But as Noah's love life and Walt's baseball career begin, the letters alter everything. |
TITLE: We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide
AUTHOR: Carol Anderson WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 323 And SUMMARY: Presents the argument that since the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, when African Americans make advances toward full participation in our democracy, white reaction feeds deliberate and relentless rollback of their progress. |
TITLE: Electric Arches
AUTHOR: Eve L. Ewing WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 818 Ewi SUMMARY: An imaginative exploration of Black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose. |
TITLE: As Brave As You
AUTHOR: Jason Reynolds WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Rey - NOVELS SUMMARY: When Genie and his older brother spend their summer in the country with their grandparents, he learns a secret about his grandfather and what it means to be brave. |
TITLE: All American Boys
AUTHOR: Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Rey - NOVELS SUMMARY: When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. |
TITLE: The Boy in the Black Suit
AUTHOR: Jason Reynolds WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Rey - NOVELS SUMMARY: Soon after his mother's death, Matt takes a job at a funeral home in his tough Brooklyn neighborhood and, while attending and assisting with funerals, begins to accept her death and his responsibilities as a man. |
TITLE: American Street
AUTHOR: Ibi Zoboi WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Zob - NOVELS SUMMARY: Fabiola Toussaint, a young Haitian immigrant to the United States, must navigate her life, school and relationships, while dealing with her loud cousins after her mother is detained by the United States immigration department. |
TITLE: Punching the Air
AUTHOR: Ibi Zoboi WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Zob - NOVELS SUMMARY: The award-winning author of American Street and the prison reform activist of the Exonerated Five trace the story of a young artist and poet whose prospects at a diverse art school are threatened by a racially biased system and a tragic altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood. |
TITLE: New Kid
AUTHOR: Jerry Craft WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Cra - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: Enrolled in a prestigious private school where he is one of only a few students of color, talented seventh grade artist Jordan finds himself torn between the worlds of his Washington Heights apartment home and the upscale circles of Riverdale Academy. |
TITLE: The Nickel Boys
AUTHOR: Colson Whitehead WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Whi - HISTORICAL SUMMARY: Follows the experiences of two African-American teenagers at an abusive reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. |
TITLE: On the Come Up
AUTHOR: Angie Thomas WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Tho - NOVELS SUMMARY: Sixteen-year-old Bri hopes to become a great rapper, and after her first song goes viral for all the wrong reasons, must decide whether to sell out or face eviction with her widowed mother. |
TITLE: The Usual Suspects
AUTHOR: Maurice Broaddus WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Bro - MYSTERY SUMMARY: Thelonius Mitchell, a special education student known for his pranks and tired of being labeled, is falsely accused of hiding a gun at a neighborhood hangout and tries to clear his name with the help of his best friend. |
TITLE: Becoming
AUTHOR: Michelle Obama WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 921 Oba SUMMARY: An autobiography of lawyer and American First Lady Michelle Obama. |
TITLE: Finding Yvonne
AUTHOR: Brandy Colbert WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Col - NOVELS SUMMARY: Raised by a workaholic father who is a restaurateur, Yvonne, eighteen, faces difficult choices about love, her training as a violinist, college, and career as high school graduation draws near. |
TITLE: Friday Black
AUTHOR: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: FIC Adj - NOVELS SUMMARY: A collection of short stories reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities that Black men and women contend with every day in the United States. |
TITLE: Ghost Boys
AUTHOR: Jewell Parker Rhodes WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Rho - NOVELS SUMMARY: After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen Black boys including historical figure Emmett Till. |
TITLE: Heads of the Colored People
AUTHOR: Nafissa Thompson-Spires WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Tho - NOVELS SUMMARY: After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen Black boys including historical figure Emmett Till. |
TITLE: Calling My Name
AUTHOR: Liara Tamani WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Tam - NOVELS SUMMARY: Taja Brown, growing up in a conservative and tightly knit African American family, battles family expectations to discover a sense of self and find her unique voice and purpose. |
TITLE: Dear Martin
AUTHOR: Nic Stone WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Sto - NOVELS SUMMARY: Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him. |
TITLE: Dear Justyce
AUTHOR: Nic Stone WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Sto - NOVELS SUMMARY: Incarcerated teen Quan Banks writes letters to Justyce McCallister, with whom he bonded years before over family issues, about his experiences in the American juvenile justice system. |
TITLE: Homegoing
AUTHOR: Yaa Gyasi WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Gya - HISTORICAL SUMMARY: Two half sisters, unknown to each other, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana and experience profoundly different lives and legacies throughout subsequent generations. |
TITLE: Sing, Unburied, Sing
AUTHOR: Jesmyn Ward WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F War - NOVELS SUMMARY: Living with his grandparents and sister on a Gulf Coast farm, Jojo navigates the challenges of his mother's addictions and his grandmother's cancer before the release of his father from prison prompts a road trip of danger and hope. |
TITLE: Salvage the Bones
AUTHOR: Jesmyn Ward WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F War - NOVELS SUMMARY: Pregnant fifteen-year-old Esch and her family live in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, which puts them in the path of Hurricane Katrina, and as they try to stock the small amount of food they have in preparation for the disaster, the family's love for each other will be their only hope for survival. |
TITLE: Long Way Down
AUTHOR: Jason Reynolds WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Rey - NOVELS SUMMARY: As Will, fifteen, sets out to avenge his brother Shawn's fatal shooting, seven ghosts who knew Shawn board the elevator and reveal truths Will needs to know. |
TITLE: I Am Alfonso Jones
AUTHOR: Tony Medina WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Med - GRAPHIC SUMMARY: The ghost of fifteen-year-old Alfonso Jones travels in a New York subway car full of the living and the dead, watching his family and friends fight for justice after he is killed by an off-duty police officer while buying a suit in a Midtown department store. |
TITLE: What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America
AUTHOR: Michael Eric Dyson WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 305.8 Dys SUMMARY: Examines the sources of America's torturous racial politics, tracing the 1963 meeting that included James Baldwin, Robert Kennedy, and a host of expert activists, who transformed racial and political understandings and set the stage for national disputes that are still raging today. |
TITLE: Darius & Twig
AUTHOR: Walter Dean Myers WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Mye - NOVELS SUMMARY: Two best friends, a writer and a runner, deal with bullies, family issues, social pressures, and their quest for success coming out of Harlem. |
TITLE: Monster
AUTHOR: Walter Dean Myers WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Mye - NOVELS SUMMARY: While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken. |
TITLE: The Women of Brewster Place
AUTHOR: Gloria Naylor WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Nay - NOVELS SUMMARY: The stories of seven Black women living in an urban ghetto evoke the energy, brutality, compassion, and desolation of modern Black America. |
TITLE: The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
AUTHOR: Wes Moore WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 921 Moo SUMMARY: Traces the parallel lives of two youths with the same name born a year apart in the same community, describing how the author grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, White House Fellow and promising business leader while his counterpart suffered a life of violence and imprisonment. |
TITLE: The Skin I'm In
AUTHOR: Sharon G. Flake WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Fla - NOVELS SUMMARY: Thirteen-year-old Maleeka Madison, insecure about her very dark skin, rejects the support of a new teacher, Miss Saunders, whose skin looks blotched because of a rare medical condition--but soon Maleeka begins to see that Miss Saunders could be a role model, and that she must learn to love herself and accept love from others. |
TITLE: Copper Sun
AUTHOR: Sharon Draper WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Dra - HISTORICAL SUMMARY: Two fifteen-year-old girls-one a slave and the other an indentured servant-escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves. |
TITLE: The First Part Last
AUTHOR: Angela Johnson WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Joh - NOVELS SUMMARY: When his girlfriend Nia announces that she is pregnant, sixteen-year-old Bobby, a typical urban New York City teenager, must cast aside his life of partying to visit obstetricians and social workers, who try to convince them to give their baby up for adoption, until tragedy strikes. |
TITLE: A Lesson Before Dying
AUTHOR: Ernest J. Gaines WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Gai - HISTORICAL SUMMARY: Grant Wiggins, a college-educated man who returns to his hometown to teach, forms an unlikely bond with Jefferson, a young Black man convicted of murder and sentenced to death, when he is asked to impart his learning and pride to the condemned man. |
TITLE: The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
AUTHOR: James McBride WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 921 McB SUMMARY: A young African-American man describes growing up in an all-Black Brooklyn housing project, one of twelve children of a white mother and Black father, and discusses his mother's contributions to his life and coming to terms with his confusion over his own identity. |
TITLE: Beloved
AUTHOR: Toni Morrison WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Mor - HISTORICAL SUMMARY: Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is persistently haunted by the ghost of her dead baby girl. |
TITLE: The Bluest Eye
AUTHOR: Toni Morrison WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Mor - NOVELS SUMMARY: The story of Pecola Breedlove profiles an eleven-year-old Black girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes and the tragedy that results from her longing to be accepted. |
TITLE: Song of Solomon
AUTHOR: Toni Morrison WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Mor - NOVELS SUMMARY: After meeting his mysterious aunt Pilate, who his father warns is a bad influence, a young African-American man named Macon "Milkman" Dead III leaves his rich, cold home in 1950s Michigan in search of his roots. |
TITLE: Tar Baby
AUTHOR: Toni Morrison WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Mor - NOVELS SUMMARY: On a tropical island paradise, six people interact with each other in all the tender or hateful ways that human beings are capable of. Rich and poor, Black and white, young and old, male and female, each has something to teach the others--and each has something to learn. |
TITLE: A Raisin in the Sun
AUTHOR: Lorraine Hansberry WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 812 Han SUMMARY: An African-American family is united in love and pride as they struggle to overcome poverty and harsh living conditions, in the award-winning 1959 play about an embattled Chicago family. |
TITLE: The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
AUTHOR: Langston Hughes WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 811 Hug SUMMARY: Collects 868 poems by African-American author Langston Hughes, including nearly three hundred never before presented in book form, and includes explanatory notes. |
TITLE: The Ways of White Folks
AUTHOR: Langston Hughes WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Hug - CLASSICS SUMMARY: Collection of fourteen short stories about the daily life of African-Americans sometimes colliding with whites. |
TITLE: The Fire Next Time
AUTHOR: James Baldwin WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 305.8 Bal SUMMARY: Contains a letter to Baldwin's nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation describing his childhood, views on Black Muslims, and his visions. |
TITLE: Collected Essays
AUTHOR: James Baldwin WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 814 Bal SUMMARY: A collection of nonfiction writings by African American author James Baldwin, including the autobiographical "Notes of a Native Son"; his 1963 analysis of America's racial divide, "The Fire Next Time"; and over thirty other essays. |
TITLE: Go Tell It on the Mountain
AUTHOR: James Baldwin WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Bal - CLASSICS SUMMARY: Chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy’s discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin’s rendering of his protagonist’s spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves. |
TITLE: Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone
AUTHOR: James Baldwin WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Bal - CLASSICS SUMMARY: Tells of Leo Proudhammer, an ailing actor, who looks back on his life from Harlem to Broadway, his love affairs with a white woman and a Black man, and his racial struggles. |
TITLE: Mules and Men
AUTHOR: Zora Neale Hurston WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 398.2 Hur SUMMARY: A collection of African American folklore that has formed an oral history of the South since the time of slavery. |
TITLE: Their Eyes Were Watching God
AUTHOR: Zora Neale Hurston WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Hur - CLASSICS SUMMARY: When Janie Starks returns home, she seeks identity and independence as the small southern Black community buzzes with gossip about the outcome of her affair with a younger man. |
TITLE: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
AUTHOR: Maya Angelou WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 921 Ang SUMMARY: A Black woman recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums. |
TITLE: The Color Purple
AUTHOR: Alice Walker WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Wal - NOVELS SUMMARY: An expression of love and humanity, the story of a poor, barely literate Black woman in the rural South during the early decades of this century, and her struggle for independence. |
TITLE: Selected Poems
AUTHOR: Gwendolyn Brooks WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 811 Bro SUMMARY: Presents a collection of poems by twentieth-century African-American poet and author Gwendolyn Brooks. |
TITLE: Invisible Man
AUTHOR: Ralph Ellison WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Ell - CLASSICS SUMMARY: An African-American man's search for success and the American dream leads him out of college to Harlem and a growing sense of personal rejection and social invisibility. |
TITLE: Flying Home and Other Stories
AUTHOR: Ralph Ellison WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: F Ell - CLASSICS SUMMARY: Includes thirteen short fiction stories written by Ellison between 1937 and 1954. |
TITLE: Twelve Years a Slave
AUTHOR: Solomon Northup WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE LIBRARY: 921 Nor SUMMARY: A memoir of a Black man who was born free in New York state but kidnapped, sold into slavery and kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before the American Civil War. |