Your ARHS Library contains many fiction books written by authors of African Descent. Stop by the library and check out the following titles.
A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe by Mahogany L. Browne
“In New York City, teens, their families, and their communities feel the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the fear and loss, these teens and the adults around them persevere with love and hope while living in difficult circumstances: Malachi writes an Armageddon short story inspired by his pandemic reality. Tariq helps their ailing grandmother survive during quarantine. Zamira struggles with depression and loneliness after losing her parents. Mohamed tries to help keep his community spirit alive. Mahogany L. Browne’s unforgettable, interconnected short stories and poems remind us to breathe as these New York City teens discover their will to survive, their determination to dream, and their joy.” -Amazon
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
“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, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?” -WorldCat
Audre & Bash Are Just Friends by Tia Williams
“In need of inspiration for her self-help book, sixteen-year-old straightlaced Audre hires seventeen-year-old easygoing Bash to be her fun consultant for a summer full of daring experiences and undeniable romance.” -WorldCat
Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams
“There are ninety-six reasons why thirteen-year-old Genesis dislikes herself. She knows the exact number because she keeps a list: Because her family is always being put out of their house. Because her dad has a gambling problem. And maybe a drinking problem too. Because Genesis knows this is all her fault. Because she wasn't born looking like Mama. Because she is too black. Genesis is determined to fix her family, and she's willing to try anything to do so, even if it means harming herself in the process. But when Genesis starts to find a thing or two she actually likes about herself, she discovers that changing her own attitude is the first step in helping change others.” -WorldCat
Invisible Son by Kim Johnson
"Andre Jackson is determined to reclaim his identity. But returning from juvie doesn't feel like coming home. His Portland, Oregon, neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying, and COVID-19 shuts down school before he can return. And Andre's suspicions about his arrest for a crime he didn't commit even taint his friendships. It's as if his whole life has been erased. The one thing Andre is counting on is his relationship with the Whitaker kids--especially his longtime crush, Sierra. But Sierra's brother Eric is missing, and the facts don't add up as their adoptive parents fight to keep up the act that their racially diverse family is picture-perfect. If Andre can find Eric, he just might uncover the truth about his own arrest. But in a world where power is held by a few and Andre is nearly invisible, searching for the truth is a dangerous game." -Publisher
Kneel by Candace Buford
“For guys like Russell Boudreaux, football is the only way out of their small town. As the team’s varsity tight end, Rus has a singular goal: to get a scholarship and play on the national stage. But when his best friend is unfairly arrested and kicked off the team, Rus faces an impossible choice: speak up or live in fear. Desperate for change, Rus kneels during the national anthem. In one instant, he falls from local stardom and becomes a target for hatred. But he’s not alone. With the help of his best friend and an unlikely ally, Rus will fight for his dreams, and for justice.” -Amazon
Punching The Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
“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 gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal's bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story.” -WorldCat
Shovels Not Rifles by Gloria Wesley
"Shovels Not Rifles is the story of Will, a young Black man from a small Nova Scotia town who enlists and goes to war in the historical Black Battalion in 1916. When ‘Coloured’ men are finally allowed to enlist in the Canadian military, Will Coleman has a chance to make his late father proud, see the world and earn enough money to take care of his mother. Immediately after joining the No. 2 Construction Battalion, he learns that the members of Canada’s only all-Black battalion are not allowed to fight on the front lines. Instead, they are assigned the same forestry work they were doing at home. Not only that, Will is the target of racism and discrimination by superiors and many fellow soldiers who refuse to accept a ‘checkerboard army’." -Publisher
(S)Kin by Ibi Zobo
“Fifteen-year-old Marisol and her mother, Lourdes, have recently settled in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn. They are soucouyant, witches who shed their skins during the new moon and ‘sip from / a soul,’ nourishing themselves through the life force of their enemies. But the American dream Mummy is seeking doesn’t include freedom for Marisol, who feels ‘forever alone.’ Monthly she shape-shifts, igniting her firesoul and shedding a layer of the skin—'Black, girl, poor, and immigrant’—given to her in America. Seventeen-year-old Genevieve lives with her white anthropologist father, white stepmother, and twin half siblings. She dreams of her mother, a Black woman who’s a mystery, and struggles with her skin, which feels like it will ‘burn and melt,’ itching ‘like a billion tiny needles.’ The girls’ worlds collide when Lourdes is hired as a nanny by Genevieve’s stepmother. Marisol and Genevieve are two sides of the same coin, both reaching for maternal connections, and soon, loyalties in their families and within themselves will be tested.” -Kirkus
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
“Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in.Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison's virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.” -Amazon
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
“Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa, Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. Years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the American Revolution and registering her name in the historic Book of Negroes, a record of freed Loyalist slaves who resettled in Nova Scotia, only to find that the haven they sought was steeped in an oppression all of its own.” -WorldCat
The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris
Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus's curse of seeing the future distracts him from being and doing his best, but when he sees his little brother Isaiah's imminent death, he races against time, death, and circumstances to save him. -Summary
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
“This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in Black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates boldly and brilliantly African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a Black woman who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard.” -WorldCat
You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson
"Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school; after all, her family is black and rather poor, especially since her mother died; instead she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through she is forced to turn to her school's scholarship for prom king and queen, which plunges her into the gauntlet of social media which she hates and leads her to discoveries about her own identity and the value of true friendships." -Publisher
