Ibi Aanu Zoboi
Author
Publication Date
[2023]
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
"Warrior Princess. That’s what Nigeria Jones’s father calls her. He has raised her as part of the Movement, a Black separatist group based in Philadelphia. Nigeria is homeschooled and vegan and participates in traditional rituals to connect her and other kids from the group to their ancestors. But when her mother-the perfect matriarch of their Movement-disappears, Nigeria’s world is upended. She finds herself taking care of her baby brother...
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
2021 Summer Top Picks for High Schoolers
2022 Abraham Lincoln Teen Book Awards
2022 Lincoln Award Nominees
More Lists...
2022 Abraham Lincoln Teen Book Awards
2022 Lincoln Award Nominees
More Lists...
Description
From award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. The story that I thought was my life didn't start on the day I was born. Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a...
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Back to School (teens)
Caribbean American Heritage Month (teens)
Haitian Heritage Month 2025
More Lists...
Caribbean American Heritage Month (teens)
Haitian Heritage Month 2025
More Lists...
Description
On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie -- a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola's mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit's west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own. Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world,...
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
Recounts the journey of African descendants in America by connecting their history to the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
"The People Remember tells the journey of African descendants in America by connecting their history to the seven principles of Kwanzaa. It begins in Africa, where people were taken from their homes and families. They spoke different languages and had different customs. Yet they were bound and chained together and forced onto ships...
5) (S)kin
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Black History Month 2026: Teens
High School 2025 Must Reads (teens)
Myths & Legends (SCPL-YA)
More Lists...
High School 2025 Must Reads (teens)
Myths & Legends (SCPL-YA)
More Lists...
Description
"Our new home with its thick walls and locked doors wants me to stay trapped in my skin but I am fury and flame." Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked...
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
BBD Black History Month
Black History Month (WPLD)
February 2026 | Black History Month (Kids)
More Lists...
Black History Month (WPLD)
February 2026 | Black History Month (Kids)
More Lists...
Description
"In the summer of 1984, 12-year-old Ebony-Grace Norfleet makes the trip from Huntsville, Alabama, to Harlem, where she'll spend a few weeks with her father while her mother deals with some trouble that's arisen for Ebony-Grace's beloved grandfather, Jeremiah. Jeremiah Norfleet is a bit of a celebrity in Huntsville, where he was one of the first black engineers to integrate NASA two decades earlier. And ever since his granddaughter came to live with...
Author
Publication Date
[2025]
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
A picture book offers a lyrical celebration of the first day of school across every continent and explores what going back to school looks like, including breakfast-to-bedtime routines, for children in countries around the world.
8) Pride
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!
K&T - Black Joy - Fiction
OBD Jane Austen Lovers - YOUTH
YA - Hating to Dating (WPL-Teen)
K&T - Black Joy - Fiction
OBD Jane Austen Lovers - YOUTH
YA - Hating to Dating (WPL-Teen)
Description
"Pride and Prejudice gets remixed in this smart, funny, gorgeous retelling of the classic, starring all characters of color, from Ibi Zoboi, National Book Award finalist and author of American Street. Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable. When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street,...
Author
Publisher
Dutton Children's Books
Publication Date
2022.
Language
English
Appears on these lists
2023 ALA Children's Award Winners and Nominees
Black History Month (WPLD)
Black History Month - Youth
More Lists...
Black History Month (WPLD)
Black History Month - Youth
More Lists...
Description
"From the New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist, a biography in verse and prose of science fiction visionary Octavia Butler. Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler experienced an American childhood that shaped her into the groundbreaking science-fiction...
Author
Publisher
Marvel
Publication Date
2022.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
When her first mission brings her to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville, Okoye, discovering the truth about a manipulative real-estate mogul, is torn between fulfilling her duty to Wakanda or listening to her own heart and standing up for the people of Brownsville.
Publication Date
[2019]
Language
English
Appears on these lists
A Tapestry of Voices (SCPL-YA)
Abraham Lincoln Book Award 2021
Black History Month - Teens
More Lists...
Abraham Lincoln Book Award 2021
Black History Month - Teens
More Lists...
Description
Black is ... sisters navigating their relationship at summer camp in Portland, Oregon, as written by Renée Watson. Black is ... three friends walking back from the community pool talking about nothing and everything, in a story by Jason Reynolds. Black is ... Nic Stone's high-class beauty dating a boy her momma would never approve of. Black is ... two girls kissing in Justina Ireland's story set in Maryland. Black is urban and rural, wealthy and...
Publication Date
[2024]
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
The kids in these humorous short stories each have a minor superpower they're learning to live with. One can shape-shift--but only part of her body, and only on Mondays. Another can always tell whether an avocado is perfectly ripe. One can even hear the thoughts of the animals in the pet store! But what these stories are really about is their young protagonists "owning" a power that contributes to their individuality, that allows them to find their...
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"Evoking Beyoncé's Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler's heirs, have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that centers Black women and gender nonconforming individuals. A Phoenix First Must Burn will take you on a journey from folktales retold to futuristic societies and everything in between. Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex...
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
A collection of short stories exploring the moment when a couple meets for the first time--from an African American girl in upstate New York who simultaneously finds a prom dress and a date to a transgender girl who confronts the student blocking her right to use the school restroom.
Publisher
Viking
Publication Date
2023.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
Featuring exclusively Black characters, this multi-genre story collection--drawing from contemporary, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, magical and realistic--celebrates and redfines the many facets of Blackness and geekiness, both in the real world and those imagined.
Publisher
Playaway Products, LLC
Publication Date
[2024]
Language
English
Description
"The kids in these humorous short stories each have a minor superpower they're learning to live with. One can shape-shift--but only part of her body, and only on Mondays. Another can always tell whether an avocado is perfectly ripe. One can even hear the thoughts of the animals in the pet store! But what these stories are really about is their young protagonists "owning" a power that contributes to their individuality, that allows them to find their...


