Watch us rise
Renée Watson
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
Frustrated by the way women are treated--even at their progressive New York City high school--two best friends start a Women's Rights Club, post their essays and poems online, and watch it go viral, attracting positive support as well as trolls.
Children of blood and bone
Tomi Adeyemi
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
Seventeen-year-old Zélie, her older brother Tzain, and rogue princess Amari fight to restore magic to the land and activate a new generation of magi, but they are ruthlessly pursued by the crown prince, who believes the return of magic will mean the end of the monarchy.
If you come softly
Jacqueline Woodson
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Woodson Jacquel
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.
Dread nation
Justina Ireland
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
When families go missing in Baltimore County, Jane McKeene, who is studying to become an Attendant, finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy that has her fighting for her life against powerful enemies.
The poet X : a novel
Elizabeth Acevedo
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
"Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, Xiomara Batista has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. She pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers--especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. Mami is determined to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, and Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. When she is invited to join her school's slam poetry club, she can't stop thinking about performing her poems"--Dust jacket.
The hate u give
Angie Thomas
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
After witnessing her friend's death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter's life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.
Dear Martin
Nic Stone
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
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.
Say her name
Zetta Elliott
811.6/Elliott
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter. Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries to create a chorus of voices celebrating the creativity, resilience, and courage of Black women and girls.
The crossover
Kwame Alexander
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
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.
Pride
Ibi Aanu Zoboi
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
After the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri is forced to find common ground with Darius, while struggling with her four wild sisters, a handsome boy vying for her attention, and college applications.
Light it up
Kekla Magoon
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Young Adult, Diverse Characters, Read Woke
Told from multiple viewpoints, Shae Tatum, an unarmed, thirteen-year-old black girl, is shot by a white police officer, throwing their community into upheaval and making it a target of demonstrators.
Black enough : Stories of Being Young & Black in America
Ibi Aanu Zoboi
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
Stamped : racism, antiracism, and you
Ibram X. Kendi
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Read Woke, Young Adult, Nonfiction
"A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning"--
The black mage
Daniel (Daniel Howard) Barnes
GRAPHIC NOVEL Barnes
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult, Graphic Novels
"When St. Ivory Academy, a historically white wizarding school, opens its doors to its first-ever black student, everyone believes that the wizarding community is finally taking its first crucial steps toward inclusivity. Or is it? When Tom Token, the beneficiary of the school's "Magical Minority Initiative," begins uncovering weird clues and receiving creepy texts on his phone, he and his friend, Lindsay, stumble into a conspiracy that dates all the way back to the American Civil War, and could cost Tom his very soul"--Amazon.
Monster : a graphic novel
Guy A. Sims
GRAPHIC NOVEL Myers
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Graphic Novels, Young Adult
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.
Tyler Johnson was here
Jay Coles
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Coles Jay
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
"When Marvin Johnson's twin brother, Tyler, is shot and killed by a police officer, Marvin must fight injustice to learn the true meaning of freedom"--
Let's talk about love
Claire Kann
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Kann Claire
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
Alice's last girlfriend, Margo, ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual. Now Alice is sure she's done with dating... and then she meets Takumi. She can't stop thinking about him or the rom-com-grade romance feelings she did not ask for. When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library-employee badge, Alice has to decide if she's willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated-- or understood.
Not so pure and simple
L. R. Giles
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
High school junior Del Rainey unwittingly joins a Purity Pledge class at church, hoping to get closer to his long-term crush, Kiera.
Inventing Victoria
Tonya Bolden
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Bolden Tonya
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
Essie, a young black woman in 1880s Savannah, is offered the opportunity to leave her shameful past and be transformed into an educated, high-society woman in Washington, D.C.
The field guide to the North American teenager
Ben Philippe
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Philippe Ben
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
When Norris, a Black French Canadian, starts his junior year at an Austin, Texas, high school, he views his fellow students as clichés from "a bad 90s teen movie."
I wanna be where you are
Kristina Forest
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Forest Kristina
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
When Chloe's mom forbids her to apply for a spot at the dance conservatory of her dreams, she devises a secret plan to drive two hundred miles from Philadelphia to New York, the nearest audition. When annoying neighbor Eli insists upon hitching a ride, he threatens to tell Chloe's mom if she leaves without him and his smelly dog, Geezer. Now Chloe's chasing her ballet dreams down the east coast, with two unwanted (but kinda cute) passengers in her car, butterflies in her stomach, and a really dope playlist on repeat. -- adapted from jacket
Monday's not coming
Tiffany D. Jackson
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Jackson Tiffany
Black Lives Matter, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Young Adult
When her friend Monday Charles goes missing and Monday's mother refuses to give her a straight answer, Claudia digs into her disappearance.