Teen Fiction by African American Authors

Books Rich in African American Culture and History by African American Authors

Jimi & Me
By Jaime Adoff
YA Adoff
After his father's tragic death, twelve-year-old Keith James moves from Brooklyn to a small midwestern town where his mixed race heritage is not accepted, but he finds comfort in the music of Jimi Hendrix and the friendship of a white classmate.

Born in Sin
By Evelyn Coleman
YA Coleman
Despite serious obstacles and setbacks, fourteen-year-old Keisha pursues her dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer and medical doctor.

Copper Sun
By Sharon Draper
YA Drake
Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.

The Skin I’m In
By Sharon Flake
YA Flake
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.

Bronx Masquerade
By Nikki Grimes
YA Grimes
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates

Dark Sons
By Nikki Grimes
YA Grimes
Alternating poems compare and contrast the conflicted feelings of Ishmael, son of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, and Sam, a teenager in New York City, as they try to come to terms with being abandoned by their fathers and with the love they feel for their younger stepbrothers.

The First Part Last
By Angela Johnson
YA Johnson
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue
By Julius Lester
YA Lester
Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave "assets", possibly including Emma.

Twists and Turns
By Janet McDonald
YA 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.

47
By Walter Mosley
YA Mosley
Number 47, a fourteen-year-old slave boy growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal master in 1832, meets the mysterious Tall John, who introduces him to a magical science and also teaches him the meaning of freedom.

Monster
By Walter Dean Myers
YA Myers
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.

Slam
By Walter Dean Myers
YA Myers
Sixteen-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 .

Imani All Mine
By Connie Rose Porter
YAPB Porter
Relates the story of Tasha, an unwed fourteen-year-old who raises her daughter Imani and survives the increasingly violent ghettos of Buffalo, New York, with determination and faith.

Behind You
By Jacqueline Woodson
YA Woodson
After fifteen-year-old Jeremiah is mistakenly shot by police, the people who love him struggle to cope with their loss as they recall his life and death, unaware that 'Miah is watching over them.

View the list of Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners