The Hate U Give

Author

Notes

A fascinating look at the life of a recent Hatian immigrant living in Detroit.

Description

Publisher Annotation: 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...

2) Piecing me together

Author

Watson, Renée

Notes

Set in East Portland, this is a quieter story, but one worth checking out. It's a window into the world of a young artist who wants to be seen for her gifts rather than the help she needs.

Formats:

Book, Book - Hardback, eBook, Kindle

Description

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"Acclaimed author Renee Watson offers a powerful story about a girl striving for success in a world that too often seems like it's trying to break her. Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where...

3) Dear Martin

Author

Stone, Nic

Notes

Calling this "the male version of The Hate U Give" doesn't do it justice for being a unique work of its own...but it is the easiest way to annotate this one.

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

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Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him.

4) Long way down

Author

Reynolds, Jason

Notes

A boy's older brother is shot, he knows who did it, so he finds a gun and gets on the elevator to find the killer. It turns out to be a long way down. Told in verse and very powerful.

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook

Description

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As Will, fifteen, sets out to avenge his brother Shawn's fatal shooting, seven ghosts who knew Shawn board the elevator and reveal truths Will needs to know.

5) All American boys

Author

Reynolds, Jason

Series

A Caitlyn Dlouhy book

Notes

Two boys, one black and one white, have very different experiences.

Description

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All 16-year-old Rashad was looking for was a bag of chips. He never asked to be assaulted by aggressive cop Paul Galluzzo. One of the witnesses, varsity basketball player Quinn Collins, lost his father in Afghanistan and has since been raised by Paul. The video of the incident goes viral, Rashad stops coming to school, and everyone takes sides. Rashad and Quinn face difficult choices as they move toward a new understanding of their world.

6) Anger is a gift

Author

Oshiro, Mark

Notes

Set in Oakland, with an amazingly diverse array of characters, this title deals with the problems that come from over policing urban schools.

Description

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Publisher Annotation: Moss Jeffries is many things?considerate student, devoted son, loyal friend and affectionate boyfriend, enthusiastic nerd. But sometimes Moss still wishes he could be someone else?someone without panic attacks, someone whose father was still alive, someone who hadn?t become a rallying point for a community because of one horrible night. And most of all, he wishes he didn?t feel so stuck. Moss can?t even escape at school?he and...

7) Shadowshaper

Author

Older, Daniel Jose

Series

Shadowshaper cypher volume 1

Notes

This urban fantasy is set in Brooklyn. While this is the first in the series, when book 3 comes out the gang will be battling white nationalists.

Description

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When the murals painted on the walls of her Brooklyn neighborhood start to change and fade in front of her, Sierra Santiago realizes that something strange is going on--then she discovers her Puerto Rican family are shadowshapers and finds herself in a battle with an evil anthropologist for the lives of her family and friends.

8) yummy the last days of a southside shorty

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

9) How it went down

Author

Magoon, Kekla

Notes

When a Trayvon-Martin-Like incident happens and a young black teen is killed by a vigilante multiple viewpoints try to cobble together what really happened.

Description

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When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson is shot to death, his community is thrown into an uproar because Tariq was black and the shooter, Jack Franklin, is white.

10) March: Book three

Author

Lewis, John

Series

March volume 3

Notes

US Representative and Civil Rights Icon John Lewis gives us a memoir of the Civil Rights Movement in graphic form. This is what resistance looks like. This is Volume 3.

Formats:

eComic, Graphic Novel, Kindle

Description

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Continues the first-hand account of John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement.

11) March: Book two

Author

Lewis, John

Series

March volume 2

Notes

US Representative and Civil Rights Icon John Lewis gives us a memoir of the Civil Rights Movement in graphic form. This is what resistance looks like. This is Volume 2.

Formats:

eComic, Graphic Novel, Kindle

Description

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Continues the first-hand account of John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement.

12) March, Book One

Author

Lewis, John

Series

March volume 1

Notes

US Representative and Civil Rights Icon John Lewis gives us a memoir of the Civil Rights Movement in graphic form. This is what resistance looks like. This is Volume 1.

Formats:

eBook, Kindle

Description

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Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president.Now, to share his remarkable story with

...

13) Monday's not coming: a novel

Author

Jackson, Tiffany D

Notes

Monday vanishes. Nobody seems to notice or care except her best friend. What's really going on?

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

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Publisher Anno: Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable?more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn?t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia?s worried. When she doesn?t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn?t just leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Not after last year?s rumors and not with her grades on...

14) Allegedly: a novel

Author

Jackson, Tiffany D

Notes

This twist turny, possibly unreliably narrated tale is impossible to put down. You've been warned. It also makes some interesting points about the criminal justice system.

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

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Publisher Annotation: Orange Is the New Black meets Walter Dean Myer?s Monster in this gritty, twisty, and haunting debut by Tiffany D. Jackson about a girl convicted of murder seeking the truth while surviving life in a group home.

15) Crossing Ebenezer Creek

Author

Bolden, Tonya

Series

Crossing Ebenezer Creek volume 1

Notes

This one's historical, but has a repeated refrain: "colored lives just don't matter" that resonates today. Based on a little known historical tragedy. Spoiler alert: it does not have a happy ending.

Formats:

eBook, Kindle

Description

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Award-winning author Tonya Bolden sheds light on an unknown moment of the Civil War to readers in a searing, poetic novel about the dream of freedom.
When Mariah and her young brother Zeke are suddenly freed from slavery, they join Sherman's march through Georgia. Mariah wants to believe that the brutalities of slavery are behind them, but even as hope glimmers, there are many hardships yet to come. When she meets a free black named Caleb,...