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Books for Teens Featuring African American Characters and Culture |
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The Door of No Return
by Kwame Alexander
From New York Times best-selling author comes the first book in a searing, breathtaking trilogy that tells the story of 11-year-old Kofi Offin, a village, and the epic odyssey of an African family.
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Operation Sisterhood
by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Moving in with her Mums boyfriend in Harlem, Bo isn't sure there is room for her in their crowded, yet happy, home, in this heartwarming novel about the difficulties of change, the loyalty of sisters and the love of family.
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Let the Monster Out
by Chad Lucas
When things in their town keep getting stranger and stranger, Bones Malone and Kyle Specks team up to solve this mystery, which forces them to face their worst nightmares as they search for the truth.
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King and the Dragonflies
by Kacen Callender
A 12-year-old boy spends days in the mystical Louisiana bayou to come to terms with a sibling’s sudden death, his grief-stricken family and the disappearance of his former best friend amid whispers about the latter’s sexual orientation.
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The Summoner
by Victoria Bond
A finale to the acclaimed trilogy finds Zora navigating her showboating father’s mayoral campaign before a lynch mob crosses the border into once-idyllic Eatonville to pursue a fugitive at the same time a grave robber exposes disturbing historical secrets.
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Clean Getaway
by
Nic Stone
An 11-year-old boy confronts the realities of race relations, past and present, and his unconventional grandmother’s mysterious agenda during an unplanned Spring Break road trip through the once-segregated American South.
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The Only Black Girls in Town
by
Brandy Colbert
Ecstatic to hear that another African American family has moved into town, surfer Alberta attempts to make friends with homesick newcomer Edie, who helps her uncover painful local secrets in a box of old journals.
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Genesis Begins Again by Alicia Williams A 13-year-old girl, who is so oppressed by low self-esteem that she keeps a list of the things she hates about herself, must overcome internalized racism and a verbally abusive family to learn to love herself.
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My life as an Ice Cream Sandwich
by
Ibi Aanu Zoboi
In the summer of 1984, twelve-year-old Ebony-Grace of Huntsville, Alabama, visits her father in Harlem, where her fascination with outer space and science fiction interfere with her finding acceptance.
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Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky
by
Kwame Mbalia
Haunted by the bus accident that ended his best friend’s life, seventh grader Tristan Strong dreads a visit to his grandparents’ Alabama farm before a bizarre living doll snatches away his friend’s notebook and draws him into a world of burning seas, iron monsters, and exhausted black folk heroes.
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The Seventh Most Important Thing
by Shelley Pearsall
After he throws a brick at the neighborhood Junk Man's head, Arthur Owens is sentenced to community service helping him, but the junk he collects might be more important than he suspects.
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Ain't Burned All the Bright
by Jason Reynolds
This smash-up of art and text visually captures what it is to be Black in America and what it means to REALLY breath.
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Bitter
by Akwaeke Emezi
"After a childhood in foster care, Bitter is thrilled to have been chosen to attend Eucalyptus, a special school where she can focus on her painting surrounded by other creative teens. But outside this haven, the streets are filled with protests against the deep injustices that grip the city of Lucille. Bitter's instinct is to stay safe within the walls of Eucalyptus but her friends aren't willing to settle for a world that's so far away from what they deserve. Pulled between old friendships, her artistic passion, and a new romance, Bitter isn't sure where she belongs--in the studio or in the streets. And if she does find a way to help the revolution while being true to who she is, she must also ask: at what cost?"
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The Chosen One : A First-Generation Ivy League Odyssey
by Echo BrownA YA coming-of-age novel about a first-year, first-generation Black student at Dartmouth College."-- Provided by publisher. There are many watchers and they are always white. That is the first thing Echo notices as she settles into Dartmouth College. Despite graduating high school in Cleveland as valedictorian, she is struggling to keep up in demanding classes. The campus is not the promised rainbow-colored utopia where education lifts every voice. Nor is it a paradise of ideas, an incubator of inclusivity, or even an exciting dating scene. But it might be a portal to different dimensions of time and space-- only accessible if Echo accepts her calling as a Chosen One and takes charge of her future by healing her past. -- adapted from jacket.
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African Town
by Irene Latham
In this powerful novel-in-verse that chronicles the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, 14 distinct voices recreate a pivotal moment in U.S. and world history, the impacts of which we still feel today.
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When You Look Like Us
by Pamela N. Harris
When you look like us-brown skin, brown eyes, black braids or fades-everyone else thinks you're trouble. No one even blinks twice over a missing black girl from public housing because she must've brought whatever happened to her upon herself. I, Jay Murphy, can admit that, for a minute, I thought my sister Nicole just got caught up with her boyfriend-a drug dealer-and his friends. But she's been gone too long. Nic, where are you? If I hadn't hung up on her that night, she would be at our house, spending time with Grandma. If I was a better brother, she'd be finishing senior year instead of being another name on a missing persons list. It's time to step up, to do what the Newport News police department won't. Bring her home.
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Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir Adapted for Young Adults
by Kwame Onwuachi
Adapted for younger readers, an uplifting memoir by the James Beard Award-winning executive chef at Kith/Kin in Washington, D.C. includes coverage of his Bronx childhood, his training in acclaimed restaurants and the racial barriers that challenged his career.
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Smash It!
by Francina Simone
Challenging herself to overcome long-held insecurities at the beginning of her junior year, Liv lands an unexpected role in her high school’s hip-hopera production of Othello that helps launch her journey of self-empowerment.
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Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America
by
Ibi Zoboi
Edited by the National Book Award finalist and featuring contributions by a prestigious group of best-selling, award-winning, and emerging African American young-adult authors, a timely literary collection shares modern insights into what it is like to be young and black in today's America.
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The Field Guide to the North American Teenager
by
Ben Philippe
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.
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Who Put This Song On?
by
Morgan Parker
17-year-old Morgan is a black teen triumphantly figuring out her identity when her conservative town deems depression as a lack of faith, and blackness as something to be politely ignored.
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Long Way Down
by
Jason Reynolds
Driven by the secrets and vengeance that mark his street culture, 15-year-old Will contemplates over the course of 60 psychologically suspenseful seconds whether or not he is going to murder the person who killed his brother.
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Swing
by Kwame Alexander
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.
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Discovering Wes Moore
by Wes Moore
A younger reader's adaptation of the best-selling The Other Wes Moore contrasts events from his life with those of a fatherless friend to explore the issues that separate the outcomes of success and failure.
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All American Boys
by Jason Reynolds
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.
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The Hate U Give by Angie ThomasCaught between her poor neighborhood and her fancy prep school, sixteen-year-old Starr Carter becomes the focus of intimidation and more after witnessing the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, by a police officer.
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The Final Four by Paul VolponiCompeting on the four remaining teams during the NCAA basketball championship, four young athletes desperately strive to realize respective dreams while looking back on the events that have led to the most important games of their lives.
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