12-14 years old
Title: Victoire Divine (Tome: 1): Déclaration de guerre
Author: Edith Kabuya
Summary: Victoire-Divine Kembonayawhé is 14 years old, all his teeth and distributed percent! A gifted student, she obtained a scholarship to attend the most upscale boarding school in the region. But his college is nothing ordinary: the students are kings there!
Each year, the most popular designate the shortcomer who will suffer the contempt and mockery of all. Victoire-Divine does not hesitate to denounce this appalling tradition, so much so that, this time, it is she who becomes the Untouchable …
Unlike all previous elected officials, she does not intend to let it go without a fight. There is only one solution: declare war and overturn the law of the college!
(Source: amazon.ca)
Title: Home Home
Author : Lisa Allen-Agostini
Summary : Moving from Trinidad to Canada wasn’t her idea. But after being hospitalized for depression, her mother sees it as the only option. Now, living with an estranged aunt she barely remembers and dealing with her “troubles” in a foreign country, she feels more lost than ever.
Everything in Canada is cold and confusing. No one says hello, no one walks anywhere, and bus trips are never-ending and loud. She just wants to be home home, in Trinidad, where her only friend is going to school and Sunday church service like she used to do.
But this new home also brings unexpected surprises: the chance at a family that loves unconditionally, the possibility of new friends, and the promise of a hopeful future. Though she doesn’t see it yet, Canada is a place where she can feel at home–if she can only find the courage to be honest with herself.
(Source: amazon.ca)
Title: Cinderella is Dead
Author: Kalynn Baron
Summary: It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.
Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew . . .
This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.
(Source: amazon.com)
Title (s): For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When The Rainbow Is Enough* &
How Black Mothers Say I Love You**
Author : Trey Anthony
Summary: *From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange’s words reveal what it is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First published in 1975 when it was praised by The New Yorker for “encompassing…every feeling and experience a woman has ever had,” for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be read and performed for generations to come. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world.
(Source: goodreads.com/)
The play centres around mom Daphne, who’s suffering from cancer and refuses chemotherapy, and the bumpy relationship with her two adult daughters, Claudette and Valerie, along with ghostly appearances by a third, long-deceased daughter, the beloved Cloe. **
(Source: https://ottawacitizen.com/)
Title: Blackout
Author: Dhonielle Clayton, Nicola Yoon, Tiffany D. Jackson, etc.
Summary: A summer heatwave blankets New York City in darkness. But as the city is thrown into confusion, a different kind of electricity sparks…
A first meeting.
Long-time friends.
Bitter exes.
And maybe the beginning of something new.
When the lights go out, people reveal hidden truths. Love blossoms, friendship transforms, and new possibilities take flight.
(Source: Goodreads.com)
Title: Ya’ll Hiring? The Black Teen’s Guide to Navigating Employment
Author(s): Albert Phillips Jr.
Summary: Every year, millions of Black teenagers like you work to navigate the American job market. Unfortunately, courageous and resilient young people are often under-prepared and face various barriers due to systemic inequities—making them less likely to gain and excel in meaningful employment opportunities. Additionally, most “how to get a job” books provide a race-neutral, one-size-fits-all model that does not speak to the unique realities and challenges facing you and other Black youth. These two problems led to the creation of this book. Y’all Hiring? is a practical, culturally relevant guide for Black youth seeking to obtain, maintain, and exit a job in a thoughtful manner. This book provides a much-needed framework that reminds you of your greatness while preparing you for the world of work.
(Source: amazon.com)
Title: When You Were Everything
Author : Ashley Woodfolk
Summary : You can’t rewrite the past, but you can always choose to start again.
It’s been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla’s friendship imploded.
Nearly a month since Cleo realized they’ll never be besties again.
Now Cleo wants to erase every memory, good or bad, that tethers her to her ex-best friend. But pretending Layla doesn’t exist isn’t as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she’s assigned to be Layla’s tutor. Despite budding friendships with other classmates–and a raging crush on a gorgeous boy named Dom–Cleo’s turbulent past with Layla comes back to haunt them both.
Alternating between time lines of Then and Now, When You Were Everything blends past and present into an emotional story about the beauty of self-forgiveness, the promise of new beginnings, and the courage it takes to remain open to love.
(Source: amazon.ca)
15-17 years old
Title: Facing The Sun
Author: Janice Lynn Mather
Summary: A Caribbean-set story about four friends who experience unexpected changes in their lives during the summer when a hotel developer purchases their community’s beloved beach.
Change is coming to Pinder Street…
Eve is the rock in her family of seven, the one they always depend on.
Faith is the dancer all the boys want, but she only has eyes for the one she can’t have.
KeeKee is the poet who won’t follow the rules, not even to please her estranged father.
Nia is the prisoner longing to escape her overprotective mother.
Ready or not, it’s time for these four friends to face the sun.
(Source: goodreads.com)
Title: Allegedly
Author : Tiffany D. Jackson
Summary : Mary B. Addison killed a baby.
Allegedly.
She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official.
But did she do it?
(Source: amazon.com)
Title: Liens de sang
Author : Octavia E. Butler
Summary : Dana is black, Kévin is white. Married, they live in harmony and share a taste for writing. On the day of her 26th birthday, Dana, feeling unwell, loses consciousness, disappears from the living room and reappears a few moments later. She was propelled into the days of slavery to save, risking her life, Rufus, the son of the master of a plantation in the old South.
(Source: renaud-bray.com)
Title: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When The Rainbow Is Enough*
& How Black Mothers Say I Love You**
Author : Trey Anthony
Summary : From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange’s words reveal what it is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First published in 1975 when it was praised by The New Yorker for “encompassing…every feeling and experience a woman has ever had,” for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be read and performed for generations to come. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world. *
(Source: goodreads.com/)
The play centres around mom Daphne, who’s suffering from cancer and refuses chemotherapy, and the bumpy relationship with her two adult daughters, Claudette and Valerie, along with ghostly appearances by a third, long-deceased daughter, the beloved Cloe. **
(Source: https://ottawacitizen.com/)
Title: Blackout
Authors : Dhonielle Clayton, Nicola Yoon, Tiffany D. Jackson, etc.
Summary : A summer heatwave blankets New York City in darkness. But as the city is thrown into confusion, a different kind of electricity sparks…
A first meeting.
Long-time friends.
Bitter exes.
And maybe the beginning of something new.
When the lights go out, people reveal hidden truths. Love blossoms, friendship transforms, and new possibilities take flight.
(Source: goodreads.com)
Summary: Get Good with Money introduces the powerful concept of building wealth through financial wholeness: a realistic, achievable, and energizing alternative to get-rich-quick and over-complicated money management systems.
With helpful checklists, worksheets, a tool kit of resources, and advanced advice from experts who Tiffany herself relies on (her “Budgetnista Boosters”), Get Good with Money gets crystal clear on the short-term actions that lead to long-term goals.
An invaluable guide to cultivating good financial habits and making your money work for you, Get Good with Money will help you build a solid foundation for your life (and legacy) that’s rich in every way.
(Source: Amazon.com)
Title: Pride
Author : Ibi Zoboi
Summary :
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, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding.
But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.
(Source : amazon.ca)
