African-American Fiction

Books

Books found in the young adult (YA) section:

• America by E.R. Frank - America, a part-black, part-white, part-anything boy who has spent many years in institutions for disturbed, antisocial behavior, tries to piece his life together. (YA FIC FRANK)
• Come a Stranger by Cynthia Voigt - Mina's deep love for a grown-up minister drives her to seek a way to give him an unforgettable remembrance, restoration of his faith. (YA FIC VOIGT
• Dancer by Lori Hewett - Can Stephanie become a ballet dancer? Her father thinks she's crazy and being unrealistic; her white classmates are snobs; and even Vince, the love of her life, has too many problems of his own to be much help. (YA FIC HEWETT)
• Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree - As Tracy comes of age, she discovers that her curves, attitude and slanted hazel eyes win attention with boys. Spoiled and materialistic, Tracy sets out to get everything she wants. She trades boys like she trades outfits. But the material life gets old fast. (YA FIC TYREE)
• Gabriel's Story by David Anthony Durham - Gabriel and his new friend James run away from their homes to join a group of mostly white cowboys herding cattle to Texas. Too late, they realize their cowboy comrades are their own worst enemies. (YA FIC DURHAM)
• Imani, All Mine by Connie Porter - A tragic, lyrical novel of a 15 year old mother in inner city Buffalo. (YA FIC PORTER)
• Kindred by Octavia Butler - A modern African American woman is pulled back in time against her will to the slave holding South of the 19th Century. (YA SF BUTLER)
• Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson - Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother. (YA FIC WOODSON)
• Monster by Walter Dean Myers - "Monster" is what the prosecutor called 16-year-old Steve Harmon for his supposed role in the fatal shooting of a convenience-store owner. But was Steve really the lookout who gave the "all clear" to the murderer, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? You decide. (YA FIC MYERS)
• North by Night by Katherine Ayres - The journal of a 16 year old girl whose family operates a stop on the Underground Railroad. (YA FIC AYRES)
• Push by Sapphire - An illiterate teenage mother from Harlem endures a life of shocking poverty and hardship, but with help and determination learns to read and begins to transform herself. (YA FIC SAPPHIRE)
• Spellbound by Janet McDonald - Raven, a teenage mother and high school dropout living in a housing project, decides, with the help and sometime interference of her best friend Aisha, to study for a spelling bee which could lead to a college preparatory program and four year scholarship. (YA FIC MCDONALD)
• Through the Wormhole by Robert J. Favole - By means of special software, Michael and Kate travel back in time to save Michael's ancestor, a Black cavalryman during the Revolutionary War, and to warn Lafayette of a kidnapping plot. (YA FIC FAVOLE)
• When Kambia Elaine Flew In From Neptune by Lori Williams - Shayla, an aspiring writer growing up in a poor section of Houston, can't figure out the new girl next door, Kambia Elaine, who tells fantastic stories. She slowly realizes that Kambia Elaine needs help, but Shayla doesn't know where to find it. (YA FIC WILLIAMS)
• Zack by William Bell. The son of a Jewish father and black mother, high school senior Zack has never been allowed to meet his mother's family, but after doing a research project on a former slave, he travels from his home in Canada to Natchez, Mississippi to find his grandfather. (YA FIC BELL, W)
• The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks - An African American boy and an emotionally troubled white boy in North Carolina form a precarious friendship. (JRHI BROOKS, B)
• Kindred by Octavia Butler - A modern African American woman is pulled back in time against her will to the slave holding south of the 19th Century. (YA SF BUTLER, O)
• Born in Sin by Evelyn Coleman - Despite serious obstacles and setbacks, fourteen-year-old Keisha pursues her dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer and medical doctor. (YA FIC COLEMAN, E)
• Jason & Kyra by Dana Davidson - The brainy Kyra is thrown together with basketball star Jason for a class project. They find out that each other is not the person they assumed previously, and then their relationship takes a serious turn. (YA FIC DAVIDSON, D)
• Double Dutch by Sharon Draper - Three friends, preparing for the International Double Dutch Championship jump rope competition in their home town of Cincinnati, Ohio, cope with Randy's missing father, Delia's inability to read, and Yo Yo's encounter with the class bullies. (YA FIC DRAPER, S)
• Gabriel’s Story by David Anthony - Durham Gabriel and James run away from their homes to join a group of most white cowboys herding cattle to Texas. Too late, they realize their new cowboy comrades are their own worst enemies, and before they know it, events spin out of control in a deadly way. (YA FIC DURHAM, D)
• Dancer by Lori Hewett - Sixteen-year-old Stephanie struggles to perfect her ballet dancing as her classes are complicated by the introduction of a new male dancer. (JRHI HEWETT, L)
• Brown Glass Windows by Devorah Major - The Everman family struggles with drug abuse and poverty as their San Francisco neighborhood changes around them. (YA FIC MAJOR, D)
• Twists and Turns by Janet McDonald - With the help of a couple of successful friends, eighteen- and nineteen-year-old Teesha and Keeba try to capitalize on their talents by opening a hair salon in the run-down Brooklyn housing project where they live. (YA FIC MCDONALD, J)
• Jubilee Journey by Carolyn Meyer - Emily Rose has always felt comfortable growing up in Connecticut with her African American mother and her "French American" father, but when they spend some time with her great-grandmother in Texas, Emily Rose learns about her black heritage and uncovers some new and exciting parts of her own identity. (JRHI FIC MEYER, C)
• Slam by Walter Dean Myers - 17-year-old Slam Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently. (YA FIC MYERS, W)
• Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer - When Z.Z. Packer was only 19 years old, Seventeen published her first story. In her first collection of short stories, she tells about the lives of predominately black youth who face challenges to their preconcieved ideas. (YA FIC PACKER, Z)
• Trouble Don’t Last by Shelley Pearsall - Samuel, an eleven-year-old Kentucky slave, and Harrison, the elderly slave who helped raise him, attempt to escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad. (JRHI PEARSALL, S)
• More Like Wrestling by Danyel Smith - Two sisters from Oakland grow from girls into women, facing the hardships of life, death and love along the way. (YA FIC SMITH, D)
• The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate - Latin instructor Jerome Washington, the only African-American teacher at an all-boys boarding school in Connecticut, finds his ideals about race challenged by a promising young African-American student who responds to Jerome in an unexpected way. (YA FIC SOUTHGATE, M)
• The Land by Mildred Taylor - After the Civil War Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, finds himself caught between the two worlds of colored folks and white folks as he pursues his dream of owning land of his own. (YA FIC TAYLOR, M)
• Emako Blue by Brenda Williams - Monterey, Savannah, Jamal, and Eddie have never had much to do with each other until Emako Blue shows up at chorus practice, but just as the lives of the five Los Angeles high school students become intertwined, tragedy tears them apart. (JRHI WILLIAMS, B)
• Shayla’s Double Brown Baby Blues by Lori Aurelia Williams - Thirteen-year-old Shayla is upset when her estranged father's new baby is born on her birthday, but she learns that her problems are nothing compared to those faced by her friends Kambia and Lemm. (YA FIC WILLIAMS, L)
• Like Sisters On the Homefront by Rita Williams-Garcia - Troubled Gayle is sent down South to live with her uncle and aunt, where her life begins to change as she experiences the healing power of family. (YA FIC WILIAMS-GARCIA, R)

Books found in the adult fiction (FIC) section:

• The Color Purple by Alice Walker - An abused, uneducated black woman at the beginning of the 20th century struggles for independence. (FIC WALKER)
• Four Guys and Trouble by Marcus Major - Four guys have been friends since their college days. They've stuck together through thick and thin - until trouble shows up in the form a girl named Erika. (FIC MAJOR)
• Free and Other Stories by Anika Nailah - Gripping stories about how race and racism affect different lives. (FIC NAILAH)
• Leaving by Richard Dry - From rural South Carolina to gang infested city streets, this sweeping epic chronicles the struggles of an African American family trying to overcome racial injustice. (FIC DRY)
• Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones - Tasha, Rodney and Octavia try to navigate the social whirlpools of middle school amidst the gruesome Atlanta child murders of the early 1980's. (FIC JONES)
• Meant to Be by Rita Coburn - Whack Jan lands her dream job and searches for love in 1970's Chicago. (FIC COBURN)
• Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride - During World War II, four of the U.S. Army's 92nd Division of all-black Buffalo Soldiers become trapped between forces beyond their control and between worlds. (FIC MCBRIDE)
• Move Over Girl by Brian Peterson - Tony is tired of being a player and wants to find a meaningful, romantic relationship. (FIC PETERSON)
• Only Twice I've Wished For Heaven by Dawn Trice - After Tempest and her family move to an exclusive black suburb in Chicago, she begins to feel both curious and shut out from the loud music, housing projects, battered brownstones, and intriguing landscape of urban 35th Street. (FIC TRICE)
• Please Please Please by Renee Swindle - Whatever Babysister wants, Babysister gets. Now she wants her best friend's boyfriend. And she'll stop at nothing to get him. (FIC SWINDLE)
• Riding Through Shadows by Sharon Ewell Foster - Living in one of the most tumultuous decades of America's history, an eight-year-old African American girl experiences the anguish of real-life heartache: she loses her beloved father in the Vietnam War, endures the dissolution of her family, and faces the challenge of integration. Yet, through a wise and eccentric old woman, she also discovers the tenacity of joy. (FIC FOSTER)
• River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke - Ten-year-old Johnnie Mae Bynum is haunted by the memory of her sister Clara, who drowned in the Potomac River at a point where the neighborhood children had been routinely warned against swimming. Five years older, Johnnie Mae had always been charged with Clara's care, so Clara's death stirs up guilt and confusion. Had she pushed Clara into the water or was she only guilty of neglect? (FIC CLARKE)
• Shackling Water by Adam Mansbach - A talented saxophone player moves from Boston to Harlem to study with the jazz master he idolizes. (FIC MANSBACH)
• Too Beautiful for Words by Monique Morris - Angie, who lives in a rough Oakland neighborhood with her strict grandparents, falls under the sweet talking thumb of a street thug named Jesus. (FIC MORRIS)
• White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty - The hilarious ups and downs of Gunnar Kaufman, a street poet and basketball star who grows up black in predominantly white Santa Monica. (FIC BEATTY)
• Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell - Common threads of poverty, violence, and sorrow weave two families together. (FIC CAMPBELL)

Authors You Might Enjoy

• Joyce Barnes
• Octavia Butler
• Bebe Moore Campbell
• Christopher Paul Curtis
• Sharon Draper
• Sharon Flake
• Nikki Grimes
• Rosa Guy
• Joyce Hansen
• Angela Johnson
• Julius Lester
• Walter Dean Myers
• Mildred Taylor
• Joyce Carol Thomas
• Rita Garcia-Williams