Read Contra Costa 2025: Teen ReadsLike this list

13 items

• Black Birds in the Sky

  the Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

  Colbert, Brandy,

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  In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District--a thriving, affluent neighborhood known as America's Black Wall Street. They brought with them…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Big Jim and the White Boy

  An American Classic Reimagined

  Walker, David, 1968-

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  Big Jim and the White Boy is a radical retelling of this American classic, centering the experiences of Jim, an enslaved Black man in search of his kidnapped wife and children, along with his cheeky sidekick, Huckleberry Finn.

• Nearer My Freedom

  the Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself

  Edinger, Monica, 1952-

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  Follow Equiano from his life in Africa as a child to his enslavement at a young age, his travels across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, his liberation, and his life as a free man.

• Watch Us Rise

  Watson, Renee,

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  Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission--they're sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online--poems, essays, videos of Chelsea…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Black Enough

  Stories of Being Young & Black in America

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  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…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• African Town

  Inspired by the True Story of the Last American Slave Ship

  Latham, Irene,

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  Chronicles the story of the last Africans brought illegally to the United States on the Clotilda in 1860.

• Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School

  Jewell, Tiffany,

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  From preschool to higher education and everything in between, Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School focuses on the experiences Black and Brown students face as a direct result of the racism built into schools across the United…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Voting Booth

  Colbert, Brandy,

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  The first year they are eligible to vote, Marva and Duke meet at their polling place and, over the course of one crazy day, fall in love.

• Jumped

  Williams-Garcia, Rita,

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  The lives of Leticia, Dominique, and Trina are irrevocably intertwined through the course of one day in an urban high school after Leticia overhears Dominique's plans to beat up Trina and must decide whether or not to get involved.

• Nigeria Jones

  Zoboi, Ibi Aanu,

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  A sixteen-year-old girl whose father is the leader of a Black liberation group discovers her own place in the world.

• Kemosha of the Caribbean

  Wheatle, Alex, 1963-

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  In 1668, fifteen-year-old Kemosha is sold by a slave owner to a tavern keeper in Port Royal, Jamaica--the "wickedest city on earth." She soon flees from a brutal assault and finds herself in the company of a mysterious free Black man, Ravenhide, who…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Monster

  a Graphic Novel

  Sims, Guy A,

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  While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.

• All American Boys

  Reynolds, Jason,

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  When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn's alternating…Read moreRead more of this annotation