Celebrating Black History Month with YA


Showing 1 - 16 of 16  There are a total of 33 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "All American boys"
Star rating for All American boys
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered....
Book cover for "The awakening of Malcolm X"
Star rating for The awakening of Malcolm X
Description:
"In Charlestown Prison, Malcolm Little struggles with the weight of his past. Plagued by nightmares, Malcolm drifts through days, unsure of his future. Slowly, he befriends other prisoners and writes to his family. He reads all the books in the prison library, joins the debate team and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm grapples with race, politics, religion, and justice in the 1940s. And as his time in jail comes to an end, he begins to awaken — emerging...
Book cover for "The black kids"
Star rating for The black kids
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
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.
Book cover for "Blackout"
Star rating for Blackout
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"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. A summer heatwave blankets New York City in darkness. But as the city is thrown into confusion, a different kind of electricity sparks… A first meeting. Long-time friends. Bitter exes. And maybe the beginning...
Book cover for "Concrete rose"
Star rating for Concrete rose
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Maverick feels strongly about family ties, making choices he feels necessary to help support his mom while his King father serves time, and leave him literally holding his son in a doctor's waiting room after he gets paternity test results back and his babymomma ghosts. Now the child he's raising is impacting the lives of his family and his girlfriend, and the gang life he led to support them all financially could leave them all bearing his responsibilities...
Book cover for "The crossover"
Star rating for The crossover
Series:
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Basketball star Josh Bell and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court. When Jordan meets the new girl in school, the brothers' bond is tested. Basketball and brotherhood intertwine to show them that life doesn't come with a playbook.
Book cover for "Dear Martin"
Star rating for Dear Martin
Author:
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
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.

8. Ghost

Book cover for "Ghost"
Star rating for Ghost
Series:
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
"Ghost, a naturally talented runner and troublemaker, is recruited for an elite middle school track team. He must stay on track, literally and figuratively, to reach his full potential"--
Book cover for "A good kind of trouble"
Star rating for A good kind of trouble
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
"Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. (Oh, and she'd also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact, learn to run track, and have a cute boy see past her giant forehead.) But in junior high, it's like all the rules have changed. Now she's suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she's not black enough. Wait, what? Shay's sister,...
Book cover for "The hate u give"
Star rating for The hate u give
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"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...

11. New Kid

Book cover for "New Kid"
Star rating for New Kid
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:

Winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature!

Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real, from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft.

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing

...
Book cover for "Okoye to the people"
Star rating for Okoye to the people
Description:
"Okoye is going on her first trip to America with King T'Chaka, who has been tasked with joining other African leaders as a special envoy to the World Humanitarian Aid Council. But when Okoye arrives in New York, she realizes the city-and her mission-are not what she expects. Thrown into conflict in Brownsville, a neighborhood struggling with gentrification, Okoye must find her place in the Dora Milaje, and the world." --Provided by publisher.
Book cover for "Piecing me together"
Star rating for Piecing me together
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
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.
Book cover for "Punching the Air"
Star rating for Punching the Air
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Description:

New York Times and USA Today bestseller * Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor * Walter Award Winner * Goodreads Finalist for Best Teen Book of the Year * Time Magazine Best Book of the Year * Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year * School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Best Book of the Year * New York Public Library Best Book of the Year

From award-winning, bestselling

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Book cover for "This is my America"
Star rating for This is my America
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time—her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy's older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a "thug" on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to...
Book cover for "Who put this song on?"
Star rating for Who put this song on?
Description:
"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"--