#coe booth

Happy Pub Day to IBI ZOBOI whose new collection of stories by award-winning, bestselling and emerging African-American young adult authors on what it’s like to be a black teen in America: Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

Black is...sisters navigating their relationship at summer camp in Portland, Oregon, as written by Renée Watson.

Black is…three friends walking back from the community pool talking about nothing and everything, in a story by Jason Reynolds.

Black is…Nic Stone’s high-class beauty dating a boy her momma would never approve of.

Black is…two girls kissing in Justina Ireland’s story set in Maryland.

Black is urban and rural, wealthy and poor, mixed race, immigrants, and more—because there are countless ways to be Black enough.

featuring writers: Ibi Zoboi, Tracey Baptiste, Coe Booth, Dhonielle Clayton, Brandy Colbert, Jay Coles, Lamar Giles, Leah Henderson, Justina Ireland, Varian Johnson, Kekla Magoon, Tochi Onyebuchi, Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Liara Tamani, Renée Watson, Rita Williams-Garcia

ARC Review: Black Enough by Ibi Zoboi & various ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America by Ibi Zoboi My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today—Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America.

Black is…sisters navigating their relationship…

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) all of my books this week are audiobooks and I neglected to throw a physical book in my backpack.  Luckily for me, I work in a room full of books, so I grabbed one that is making the transition between my school library and my … More The Friday 56: Tyrell

Firstly, I'd just like to say this book was one of the best YA books I've ever read. I'd imagine a teen who lives in a ghetto of some sort being able to relate to the main character "Kendra" for numerous reasons. However, despite the realistic setting of this book, there were a lot of things about the storyline and the main characters that frankly annoyed the shit out of me.

14-year-old Kendra is a very, very vulnerable young lady after being pretty much abandoned by her 28-year-old mother, Renee, who had Kendra when she was her age. Kendra is left to be taken care of by her grandmother who has made it her purpose in life to keep Kendra from ending up like her mother. With Kendra mother in school getting different types of degrees and a Ph.D, Kendra is left with a void that needs to be filled, which is where me, the reader, being irritated comes in.

Kendra then proceeds to make naive, rookie mistakes when it comes to how she handles her friendship with her best friend (aunt) and relationships with boys. I don’t want to put in any spoilers for this book because honestly, I don’t feel like writing that much right now but I’ll just tell you this. PARENTS, give your children some attention and love. If you were bold enough to do the do in order to create them, the least you could do is spend some quality time with them. Renee may of had Kendra when she was just starting high school but there is no excuse for them to practically being strangers 14 years later. 

WNDB team members and other authors of diverse works will have a discussion on the “Issues of Representation” starting at 2pm, Saturday, March 21st. All NYC TAF discussions will be at 42nd Street NYPL, Bartos Forum, 5th Ave at 42nd St, 1-5pm on Saturday.

2:30-3:10 – Issues of Representation in YA

Explanation: Whether you are writing about characters whose identifications you share or about characters whose identifications you don’t share, there will always be issues of representation, both for the writer and for the reader. We’ll talk about writing what you’ve known vs. writing what you haven’t experienced firsthand, as well as talking about the different ways to achieve diversity within our literature and what obligation, if any, writer have to “represent” the groups that they belong to within their work.

Maria E. Andreu Coe Booth Sona Charaipotra Dhonielle Clayton IW Gregorio Adam Silvera Andrew Smith