YA Books for Juneteenth

Created on June 3, 2022, 4:52 pm

Last Updated June 7, 2022, 9:43 am

Honor Juneteenth with NPL! Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. The official holiday, Juneteenth National Independence Day, is also known as Black Independence Day. On June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had come two-and-a-half years earlier, on January 1, 1863, many *** owners continued to hold their slaves captive after the announcement. Therefore, Juneteenth became a symbolic date, representing African American freedom. Juneteenth is the oldest nationally-celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. These titles center Black characters as they search for justice, love, freedom, and fun. Enjoy! -- AVA/Teen Services

1) Survive the Dome

Author

Jackson, Kosoko

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"A high school junior teams up with a hacker during a police brutality protest to shut down a device that creates an impenetrable dome around Baltimore that is keeping the residents in and information from going out"--

2) Required reading for the disenfranchised freshman

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Upon arriving at the prestigious Wooddale University, seventeen-year-old Savannah Howard comes face-to-face with microaggressions and outright racism--but if she stands up for justice, will she endanger her future?

3) Angel of Greenwood

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

Randi Pink's The Angel of Greenwood is a historical YA novel that takes place during the Greenwood Massacre of 1921, in an area of Tulsa, OK, known as the "Black Wall Street." Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Wilson is, on the surface, a town troublemaker, but is hiding that he is an avid reader and secret poet, never leaving home without his journal. A passionate follower of W.E.B. Du Bois, he believes that black people should rise up to claim their place...

4) We are not broken

Author

Johnson, George M

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

George, Garrett, Rall, and Rasul were raised by Nanny, their fiercely devoted grandmother. The boys hold one another close through early brushes with racism, memorable experiences at the family barbershop, and first loves and losses. And with Nanny at their center, they are never broken. Johnson capture the unique experience of growing up as a Black boy in America, and their rich family stories. He explores themes of vulnerability, sacrifice, and...

5) The passing playbook

Author

Fitzsimons, Isaac

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"Fifteen-year-old Spencer Harris is a proud nerd, an awesome big brother, and a David Beckham in training. He's also transgender. After transitioning at his old school leads to a year of isolation and bullying, Spencer gets a fresh start at Oakley, the most liberal private school in Ohio. At Oakley, Spencer seems to have it all: more accepting classmates, a decent shot at a starting position on the boy's soccer team, great new friends, and maybe even...

6) Felix ever after

Author

Callender, Kacen

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Felix Love, a transgender seventeen-year-old, attempts to get revenge by catfishing his anonymous bully, but lands in a quasi-love triangle with his former enemy and his best friend.

7) Little & Lion

Author

Colbert, Brandy

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Suzette returns home to Los Angeles from boarding school and grapples with her bisexual identity when she and her stepbrother Lionel fall in love with the same girl. As Lionel's bipolar disorder begins to spin out of control, it forces Suzette to confront her own demons. Can she save Lionel from himself-- and will he trust her enough to do so?

8) Happily ever afters

Author

Series

Happily Ever Afters

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson has never felt like the protagonist in her own life. She's rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves. The only place she's a true leading lady is in her own writing--in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend and #1 devoted reader. When Tessa is accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, she's excited to finally let her stories...

9) Black was the ink

Author

Coles, Michelle

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

Despondent sixteen-year-old Malcolm finds new strength and courage as he is transported between his family's modern-day Mississippi farm and the life of his ancestor Cedric Johnson, a congressional aide in post-Civil War America.

10) Not so pure and simple

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"High school junior Del Rainey unwittingly joins a Purity Pledge class at church, hoping to get closer to his long-term crush, Kiera"--Provided by publisher.

11) All boys aren't blue: a memoir-manifesto

Author

Johnson, George M

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.

12) The invincible summer of Juniper Jones

Author

Formats:

Description

It's the summer of 1955. For Ethan Harper, a biracial kid raised mostly by his white father, race has always been a distant conversation. When he's sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in small-town Alabama, his blackness is suddenly front and center, and no one is shy about making it known he's not welcome there. Enter Juniper Jones. The town's resident oddball and free spirit, she's everything the townspeople aren't--open, kind, and...

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"An anthology featuring award-winning diverse authors about diverse characters. Short stories, a graphic novel, and a one-act play explore such topics as gentrification, acceptance, untimely death, coming out, and poverty, and range in genre from contemporary realistic fiction to adventure and romance"--

14) A blade so black

Author

Series

Nightmare-verse volume 1

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"A Blade So Black delivers an irresistible urban fantasy retelling of Alice in Wonderland ... but it's not the Wonderland you remember. The first time a Nightmare came, Alice nearly lost her life. Now, with magic weapons and hard-core fighting skills, she battles these monstrous creatures in the dream realm known as Wonderland. Yet even warriors have a curfew. Life in real-world Atlanta isn't always so simple, as Alice juggles an overprotective mom,...

15) One of the good ones

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Although distraught, Happi is also unsettled by the way people have idealized the memory of her sister who was killed after attending a social justice rally -- why do people have to be perfect in order to be missed? As a way to honor the memory, however, Happi and her other sister Genny go on a roadtrip using the original "Green Book" -- but the trip reveals secrets neither sister knew about the dead Kezi.

16) Darius & Twig

Author

Myers, Walter Dean

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle, Playaway

Description

"Two best friends, a writer and a runner, deal with bullies, family issues, social pressures, and their quest for success coming out of Harlem"--

17) Who put this song on?

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

It is the 2008 presidential election and seventeen-year-old African American Morgan lives in a mostly white, conservative suburb and attends a Christian high school. She suffers from the isolation that brings as a person of color. When she seeks help for her depression after a suicide attempt, she begins to find her own identity and educate others on being black in America.

18) All American boys

Author

Reynolds, Jason

Series

Thorndike Press large print striving reader collection

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn's alternating viewpoints.

19) Calling my name

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Playaway

Description

"Taja Brown, growing up in a conservative and tightly knit African American family, battles family expectations to discover a sense of self and find her unique voice and purpose"--

20) Love is a revolution

Author

Watson, Renée

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Harlem teenager Nala is looking forward to a summer of movies and ice cream until she falls in love with the very woke Tye and pretends to be a social activist.