Skip to main content

Display: Black Creators

 

By Craig Kofi Farmer
New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2024. Fiction. 340 pages.

Twelve-year-old Kwame is hurled into the Ghanaian underworld where he helps his late grandmother save humanity. --Editor

Written by Jazmyn Simon
Illustrated by Tamisha Anthony
New York : Random House, 2022. Picture Book.

A little girl learns to love each part of herself, from her spectacular hair to her big heart. --Editor

Written by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
Illustrated by Daniel Minter
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. Picture Book.

This picture book follows one color's journey throughout history--from ancient Afghan painters to 1905, when a chemical blue dye was created--and around the world, as it becomes the blue we know today. --Editor

By Kekla Magoon
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2024. Fiction. 373 pages.

Finding a mysterious letter from her late Grandpa, Dally is led straight to a library of secrets where each book is a portal to a precise moment in time, and she must find the courage to write her own life story as she "checks out" adventure after adventure. --Editor

Written by Jason Reynolds
Illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey
New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2023. Picture Book.

A celebration of Langston Hughes and African American authors he inspired, told through the lens of the party held at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in 1991. --Editor

Written by Kwame Alexander
Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Boston: Versify, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. Picture Book.

The Newbery Award-winning author of The Crossover pens an ode to black American triumph and tribulation, with art from a two-time Caldecott Honoree. -- Publisher

By Jerry Pinkney
New York; Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2020. Picture Book.

In this reinvention of Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale, a little mermaid trades her voice for legs and makes a new friend on land, but must return to the sea to save her family. --Publisher

By Faith Ringgold
New York: Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015. Picture Book.

Lonnie and his uncle journey back in time to the Harlem Renaissance. --Editor

Written by Kelly Starling Lyons
Illustrated by Daniel Minter
Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers, 2019. Picture Book.

Alan looks forward to the annual family reunion at the farm where Daddy grew up, but everyone is supposed to share something special and Alan worries about arriving with empty hands. --Editor

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Fowl Play

  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: A Game of Noctis

A Game of Noctis By Deva Fagan New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2024. Fiction. 310 pages. On the island of Dantessa, social standings and wealth are determined by your place in the Great Game. If you keep on winning, you can reap treasures, power, and security for yourself and your family; but if you lose too many games, you'll be exiled to Pawn Island and a life of servitude. That's what happens to 12-year-old Pia's grandfather. Due to poor vision, he struggles to see the games, but also can't afford new eyeglasses without winning. When his score falls to zero, he is sent away. Desperate to bring him back, Pia joins a ragtag group of misfits to form a team for the annual game of Noctis. The game requires contestants to perform dangerous challenges in front of a live audience, and no one outside the wealthy Diamond District has ever won. Each member of Pia's team, the Seafoxes, has their own reason to compete, but if they're going to win they'll h...