Best Black YA Books Black History Month

Best Black YA Books Black History Month
best-black-ya-books

Best Black YA Books Black History Month

Best Black YA Books – Black History Month

Best Black YA Books – Black History Month picked by Book Club Reporter. Literary award winning black African-American books: The Hate U Give and On The Come up.

Best Black YA Books – Book Club Reporter Picks

Angie Thomas – A three-time winner of Goodreads Choice Awards and a best black YA books pick by Laura Jay.

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Angie Thomas Award Winning African-American Author

The Hate U Give

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.

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The Hate U Give – Black YA book

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. Note: Publisher Harper Collins book description.

The Hate U Give – Literary Awards:

  • Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award (2018)
  • Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction (2017)
  • Carnegie Medal Nominee (2018)
  • Coretta Scott King Award Nominee for Author Honor (2018)
  • Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for Preis der Jugendjury (2018)
  • Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult (2018)
  • Evergreen Teen Book Award Nominee for High School (2020)
  • Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction & for Debut Goodreads Author (2017) and for Best of the Best (2018)
  • Kirkus Prize Nominee for Young Readers’ Literature (2017)
  • Lincoln Award (2019)
  • Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Young Adult Literature (2017)
  • Michael L. Printz Award Nominee (2018)
  • NAACP Image Award Nominee for Youth/Teens (2018)
  • National Book Award Nominee for Young People’s Literature (2017)
  • Odyssey Award (2018)
  • Rhode Island Teen Book Award (2019)
  • William C. Morris YA Debut Award (2018)


On The Come Up Young Adult Book – Award winning African American author, Angie Thomas

On The Come Up young adult book tells the fictional story of sixteen-year-old Bri, who  wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

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On the Come Up black ya novel by Angie Thomas

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families. Note: Publisher Balzer + Bray book description.

On the Come Up Accolades/Awards:

  • On the Come Up – #1 New York Times Bestseller
  • Seven starred reviews · Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book
  • “For all the struggle in this book, Thomas rarely misses a step as a writer. Thomas continues to hold up that mirror with grace and confidence. We are lucky to have her, and lucky to know a girl like Bri.”—The New York Times Book Review

On The Come Up Literary Awards:

  • Kirkus Prize Nominee for Young Readers’ Literature (2019)
  • Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2019)
  • Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction & Poetry Nominee (2019)
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