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3 weeks ago | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Patrick Gall |Martha V. Parravano |Michelle Lee
All the Blues in the Sky by Renée WatsonMiddle School Bloomsbury 208 pp. 2/25 9781547605897 $17.99e-book ed. 9781547605903 $12.59“I didn’t know / best friends could die.” From the very first line, Watson takes a deep dive into the intricacies of grief and healing. On her thirteenth birthday, Sage is looking forward to spending the day with her best friend; instead, she receives news that her friend has been killed by a drunk driver.
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2 months ago | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Adrienne L. Pettinelli |Sarah Ellis |Martha V. Parravano
I Am the Swarm by Hayley ChewinsHigh School Viking 336 pp. 3/25 9780593623862 $19.99e-book ed. 9780593623879 $10.99In this Cape Town–set verse novel, each woman in the Strand family gains magical abilities when she turns fifteen. As Nell Strand approaches her fifteenth birthday, she is painfully aware of the potential dangers that can accompany this “gift.” Her older sister, Mora, carries songs underneath her skin—and has been hospitalized for trying to cut the music out.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Lindsay Bayer |Jennifer Hubert Swan
Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings by Dionna L. MannIntermediate Ferguson/Holiday 208 pp. 8/24 9780823455553 $17.99e-book ed. 9780823459261 $10.99Mann sets this amiable story in 1930s Vinegar Hill, “a thriving African American business and residential community” outside Charlottesville, Virginia. Allie Lewis wants the best for her mama and thinks she needs a husband to help with financial worries and repairs.
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Jessica MacDonald |Martha V. Parravano |Jerry Dear
Boy 2.0by Tracey BaptisteIntermediate, Middle School Algonquin 304 pp. 10/24 9781643753812 $16.99e-book ed. 9781523529896 $9.99Win “Coal” Keegan is moving to another foster home; the McKay family seems nice enough, and Coal is relieved that he’s remaining at the same school with his best friend, nicknamed Door. After a case of police brutality that leaves a woman dead, Coal processes his emotions in his usual way: making chalk art throughout the neighborhood.
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Apr 17, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Amanda Toledo |Martha V. Parravano |Michelle Lee
You’re Breaking My Heart by Olugbemisola Rhuday-PerkovichMiddle School, High School Levine/Levine Querido 304 pp. 1/24 9781646141814 $19.99Fourteen-year-old Harriet is convinced she’s responsible for her older brother Tunde’s tragic death and wishes more than anything that she could take back the cruel words she spoke to him that fateful morning.
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Mar 19, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Julie Danielson |Sylvia Vardell |Martha V. Parravano
Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson; illus. by Ekua HolmesMiddle School, High School Kokila/Penguin 96 pp. 2/24 9780593461709 $18.99e-book ed. 9780593461716 $10.99This poetry collection masterfully encapsulates Watson’s experience of Black girlhood and womanhood. Through an array of poetic styles, she weaves together her personal reflections, celebrating the multifaceted nature of her own upbringing.
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Mar 13, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Monique Harris |Julie Hakim Azzam |Kristine Techavanich
Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller by Breanna J. McDaniel; illus. by April HarrisonPrimary Dial 40 pp. 1/24 9780593324202 $18.99e-book ed. 9780593324219 $11.99Few people have had more of an impact on African American children’s literature than griot, educator, and librarian Augusta Baker (1911–1998). Her path to becoming a master storyteller began in Baltimore with listening to her grandmother’s folktales.
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Jan 9, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Michelle Lee |Rachel Kerns |Dean Schneider
Gone Wolf by Amber McBrideMiddle School Feiwel 352 pp. 10/23 9781250850492 $17.99e-book ed. 9781250850485 $10.99McBride (We Are All So Good at Smiling, rev. 1/23) begins this compelling novel in the year 2111: a girl known as Inmate Eleven has lived in a small cell her whole life.
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Oct 19, 2023 | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Martha V. Parravano |Sylvia Vardell |Susan Dove Lempke
Kin: Rooted in Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford; illus. by Jeffery Boston WeatherfordIntermediate, Middle School Atheneum 208 pp. 9/23 9781665913621 $18.99e-book ed. 9781665913645 $10.99From a single photograph and sparse information to a fully realized lineage of excellence, an African American author, with dramatic illustrations by her son, traces their family’s roots. Carole Boston Weatherford (Standing in the Need of Prayer, rev.
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May 29, 2023 | 
hbook.com | Eboni Njoku |Patrick Gall |Eric Carpenter |Danielle Ford
by Eboni Njoku May 29, 2023 | Filed in Book Reviews Chef Edna Lewis (1916–2006) brought Southern cooking to the forefront of American cuisine. Growing up in Freetown, Virginia, a place founded by her... Chef Edna: Queen of Southern Cooking, Edna Lewis by Melvina Noel; illus. by Cozbi A. CabreraPrimary Cameron/Abrams 32 pp. 4/23 9781951836399 $18.99Chef Edna Lewis (1916–2006) brought Southern cooking to the forefront of American cuisine.
