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Celebrate Black History Month with these YA Titles!

February is Black History Month - check out some of these must-read YA titles! From romantic slice-of-life stories and moving historical fiction to surreal fantasies and gritty realistic tales, there’s something to offer for every type of reader. Start this year off strong by supporting Black authors and their stories!

Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative

12 items

  • Sabriya's summer plans are suddenly thrown out the window after a terrorist attack rocks the country. When the terrorist is assumed to be Muslim and Islamophobia grows, Bri creates an online blog to share her experiences as a young Black…
    BookToronto, Ontario, Canada : InkYard Press, [2022] — YA FIC SABREEN
  • After her mother dies in an accident, 16-year-old Bree is more than ready to start a residential program at UNC-Chapel Hill - until she witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus. She learns of a secret society of…
    BookNew York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, [2020] — YA FIC DEONN
  • This powerful YA novel is written in verse and follows a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet, but even in a diverse art school he is seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system.…
    BookNew York, NY : Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperrCollinsPublishers, [2020] — YA FIC ZOBOI
  • Monday Charles is missing, and only her best friend Claudia seems to notice. When she doesn't show up for the first two weeks of school, Claudia knows something is wrong. Monday's mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, so she…
    BookNew York, NY : Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018] — YA FIC JACKSON
  • Lenore Bennett is ready to start her college life at NYU, but with her parents constantly reminding her that Black kids always have to be one step ahead of the plan, she needs a break. When her family embarks on a post-graduation…
    BookNew York, NY : Balzer + Bray, c2022. — YA FIC BRYANT
  • Jay Murphy is just your typical teenager - except that his father has cancer and his mother is in prison. But things take a turn for the worse when his sister Nicole disappears. No one takes Jay's questions seriously: "when you look like…
    BookNew York, NY : Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2021] — YA FIC HARRIS
  • Starr Carter has a foot in two different worlds - the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. Everything is suddenly upended when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her best friend Khalil at the…
    BookNew York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2017] — YA FIC THOMAS
  • Black Birds in the Sky

    the Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

    Colbert, Brandy,
    This nonfiction work delves into the history and legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre. In June 1921, a white mob marched into Tulsa's predominantly Black Greenwood District and razed 35 square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead.…
    BookNew York, NY : Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2021] — 976.686 COLBERT 2021
  • Justyce is a good student with a bright future ahead of him as he's headed toward university. And yet, despite all that, he still has to fight for everything and work twice as hard just because he has a different skin color. His white…
    BookNew York : Crown, [2017] — YA FIC STONE
  • 17-year-old Avery Anderson is in her last year of high school when she's uprooted from her life and forced to move to rural Georgia to care for her ailing grandmother, Mama Letty. There's a frosty tension between Mama Letty and Avery's mom…
    BookNew York : Roaring Brook Press, 2022. — YA FIC HAMMONDS
  • Inspired by Jamaican folklore, this YA novel follows two witches who must form a deadly alliance to fight a common enemy. Jazmyne is the Queen's daughter, while Iraya has been imprisoned since the previous royal family's failed coup. The…
    BookNew York, NY : HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2021] — YA FIC SMART
  • Reggie is a D&D Dungeon Master and self-declared Blerd. Delilah keeps her feelings walled off and prefers to go with the flow - which is how she ends up singing in her friends' punk band. They're complete opposites who happen to meet for…
    BookNew York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2023] — YA FIC BRYANT