When you look like us-brown skin, brown eyes, black braids or fades-everyone else thinks you're trouble. No one even blinks twice over a missing black girl from public housing because she must've brought whatever happened to her upon herself. I, Jay Murphy, can admit that, for a minute, I thought my sister Nicole just got caught up with her boyfriend-a drug dealer-and his friends. But she's been gone too long. Nic, where are you? If I hadn't hung...

"Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters...

While on a post-graduation Mediterranean cruise with her family, Lenore Bennett meets a hopeless romantic with a ten-year plan who helps her find something she's been looking for--love. A star artist and style icon at her high school, Lenore Bennett is a master in the subtle art of not giving a... well, you know what. But now that graduation is here, she's a little less sure. Heading to NYU in the fall with a scarlet U (for "undeclared") written...

"18-year-old Opal is a young Black woman working as a housekeeper in a small Southern town in the 1930s--and then the Klan descends. A moving story that confronts America's tragic past, When Stars Rain Down is both heartwarming and heart-wrenching. This summer has the potential to change everything. The summer of 1936 in Parsons, Georgia, is unseasonably hot, and Opal Pruitt senses a nameless storm brewing. She hopes this foreboding feeling won't...

When DJ ParSec (Paris Secord), rising star of the local music scene, is found dead over her turntables, the two girls who found her, Kya (her pre-fame best friend) and Fuse (her current chief groupie) are torn between grief for Paris and hatred for each other--but when the lack of obvious suspects stalls the investigation, and the police seem to lose interest, despite pressure from social media and ParSec's loyal fans, the two girls unite, determined...

"Monique is a preacher's daughter who detests the impossible rules of her religion. Everyone expects her to wait until marriage, so she has no one to turn to when she discovers that she physically can't have sex. After two years of trying and failing, her boyfriend breaks up with her. To win him back, Monique teams up with straight-laced church girl Sasha--who is surprisingly knowledgeable about Monique's condition--as well as Reggie, the misunderstood...

In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as...

Sixteen-year-old Novah feels like her life has been put on hold, taking care of her four younger siblings while her older sister Ariana gets to play volleyball and hang out--but when their parents are killed in a car crash Ariana and Novah will have to learn to cooperate.

"A dazzling debut novel from an exciting new voice, The Mothers is a surprising story about young love, a big secret in a small community--and the things that ultimately haunt us most. Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Brit Bennett's mesmerizing first novel is an emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition. It begins with a secret. "All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we'd...

"After not being able to have a sweet sixteen party, Mahalia decides to throw a coming out party to celebrate love and herself"-- Mahalia Harris wants a big Sweet Sixteen like her best friend Naomi. She wants the cute new girl Siobhan to like her back. She wants a break from worrying about money, snide remarks from white classmates, and pitying looks from church ladies. It's too late for a Sweet Sixteen-- but what about a Coming Out Party? A singing,...