Black Voices & Culture: Books for Young Teens

Updated January 10, 2024
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The crossover
Alexander, Kwame
Series streaming now on Disney+, with executive producers including NBA great LeBron James! The Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning middle grade bestseller! Basketball and heartache share the court in this slam-dunk novel in verse. "With a bolt of lightning on my...
The door of no return
Alexander, Kwame
From the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winning author Kwame Alexander, comes the first book in a searing, breathtaking trilogy that tells the story of a boy, a village, and the epic odyssey of an African family. In his village in Upper...
Eb & Flow
Baptist, Kelly J.
A ten-day suspension has tweens De'Kari and Ebony seeing the world with a fresh perspective. Don't miss this poignant novel in verse from the award-winning author of Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero. Two kids. One fight. No one thinks they're wrong.   ...
King and the dragonflies
Callender, Kacen
A 2021 Coretta Scott King Honor Book! Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature! Winner of the 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry! In a small but turbulent Louisiana town, one boy's grief takes him...
The only black girls in town
Colbert, Brandy
A Bank Street Best Book of 2021! From award-winning YA author Brandy Colbert comes a debut middle-grade novel about the only two Black girls in town who discover a collection of hidden journals revealing shocking secrets of the past. Beach...
Class act
Craft, Jerry
New York Times bestselling author Jerry Craft returns with a companion book to New Kid, winner of the 2020 Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize. This time, it's Jordan's friend Drew who takes center stage in another laugh-out-loud funny, powerful, and...
New kid
Craft, Jerry
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...
School trip
Craft, Jerry
New York Times bestselling author Jerry Craft is back with the newest adventures of Jordan, Drew, Liam, and all the characters that fans first met in New Kid, winner of the Newbery Award and the Coretta Scott King Author Award! In this full-color contemporary graphic novel, the gang...
The probability of everything
Everett, Sarah
A heart-wrenching middle grade debut about Kemi, an aspiring scientist who loves statistics and facts, as she navigates grief and loss at a moment when life as she knows it changes forever. Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how...
Ellie Engle saves herself
Johnson, Leah (Young adult author)
From award-winning YA author Leah Johnson comes her magical middle grade debut: a laugh-until-you-cry, cry-until-you-laugh story about an ordinary girl whose life is turned upside down by some extraordinary powers. Ellie Engle doesn't stand out. Not at home, where she's alone...
Freewater
Luqman-Dawson, Amina
Winner of the John Newbery Medal Winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award  An Indiebound Bestseller A New York Times Bestseller Award-winning author Amina Luqman-Dawson pens a lyrical,...
Hands
Maldonado, Torrey
"Gorgeous and gripping, Hands is a poetic page-turner. You might just finish it in one sitting. Torrey Maldonado understands the kids he writes for at the deepest level." --Adam Gidwitz, Newbery Honor-winning author of The Inquisitor's Tale The author of What Lane?<...
Tristan Strong punches a hole in the sky
Mbalia, Kwame
Seventh grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm in Alabama,...
The rhythm of time
Questlove
An Instant New York Times Bestseller From the Academy Award-winning, Grammy-winning, and New York Times bestselling author Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and the New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby comes this thrill-a-minute novel-the first in a rollicking...
A good kind of trouble
Ramée, Lisa Moore
From debut author Lisa Moore Ramée comes this funny and big-hearted debut middle grade novel about friendship, family, and standing up for what's right, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give and the novels of Renée Watson and Jason Reynolds. Twelve-year-old...
Ghost
Reynolds, Jason
A National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read Ghost wants to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school track team, but his past is slowing him down in this...
Stamped : racism, antiracism, and you
Reynolds, Jason
In this important and compelling young readers adaptation of his National Book Award-winning title, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, writing with award-winning author Jason Reynolds, chronicles the story of anti-black, racist ideas over the course of American history. Racist ideas in our country...
Fast pitch
Stone, Nic
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone comes a challenging and heartwarming coming-of-age story about a softball player looking to prove herself on and off the field. Shenice Lockwood, captain of the Fulton Firebirds, is hyper-focused when she steps up to the...
The Manifestor prophecy
Thomas, Angie
Instant #1 New York Times bestseller! Internationally bestselling superstar author Angie Thomas makes her middle grade debut with the launch of an inventive, hilarious, and suspenseful new contemporary fantasy trilogy inspired by African American history and folklore. It's not...
Genesis begins again
Williams, Alicia 1970-
A Newbery Honor Book Winner of the Correta Scott King - John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award A Morris Award Finalist An NPR Favorite Book of 2019 A School Library Journal Best Middle Grade Book of 2019 A Kirkus Reviews...
Before the ever after
Woodson, Jacqueline
WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER OF THE CORETTA SCOTT KING AUTHOR AWARD National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson's stirring novel-in-verse explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed and the cost of professional sports on Black bodies...
Remember us
Woodson, Jacqueline
National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson brings readers a powerful story that delves deeply into life's burning questions about time and memory and what we take with us into the future. It seems like Sage's whole world is on fire the summer before she starts seventh grade....

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