Ensuring that young readers and listeners can see themselves represented in stories is key to an inclusive culture. If you’re looking for captivating listens for you or your kids about Black experiences, these are some of the incredible listens that have won our hearts.
Viva Durant, teen detective, is back in New Orleans to crack her latest case! This audio original features original music from the creator, Ashli St. Armant, and an engaging performance from Audible Hall of Fame narrator Bahni Turpin.
Now that she’s returned to New Orleans for Thanksgiving break, Viva is charged with figuring out the truth behind a mysterious bout of illness traced back to a local creole restaurant called Madame Bouchard’s. Were customers poisoned on purpose, or was it a simple cooking mistake? And who could be behind the chaos? Viva only has a week to solve the culinary mystery, and to do so, she’ll have to contend with a longtime rivalry, rumors of voodoo magic, and Thanksgiving dinner with her extended family!
Listeners will love the continued detective adventures of Viva Durant and her stern-yet-spirited Gram!
Prepare yourself for something unlike anything for teens that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right now. Written and performed by number one New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds. Featuring a bonus performance of the text by an ensemble of young voices.
Jason Reynolds and his best bud, Jason Griffin, had a mind-meld. And they decided to tackle it, in one fell swoop, in this piece, this contemplation-manifesto-fierce-vulnerable-gorgeous-terrifying-WhatIsWrongWithHumans-hope-filled-hopeful-searing-eye-poppingly-illustrated-tender-heartbreaking-how-the-heck-did-they-come-up-with-this project about oxygen. And all of the symbolism attached to that word, especially now.
And so for anyone who didn’t really know what it means to not be able to breathe, really breathe, for generations, now you know. And those who already do, you’ll be nodding yep yep, that is exactly how it is.
Eighth-grader Drew Ellis is no stranger to the saying “You have to work twice as hard to be just as good”. His grandmother has reminded him his entire life. But what if he works 10 times as hard and still isn’t afforded the same opportunities that his privileged classmates...
It’s 1963, and things are changing for Jezebel Turner. Her beloved grandmother has just passed away. The local police deputy won’t stop harassing her family. With school integration arriving in South Carolina, Jez and her twin brother, Jay, are about to begin the school year....
Ophelia Harrison used to live in a small house in the Georgia countryside. But that was before the night in November 1922, and the cruel act that took her home and her father from her. Which was the same night that Ophie learned she can see ghosts....
An astonishing new voice in teen literature, writing what is sure to be one of the most talked-about debuts of the year....
National Book Award-finalist Ibi Zoboi makes her middle-grade debut with a moving story of a girl finding her place in a world that's changing at warp speed....
All Ida Mae Jones wants to do is fly. Her daddy was a pilot, and years after his death she feels closest to him when she's in the air. But as a young black woman in 1940s Louisiana, she knows the sky is off limits to her, until America enters World War II....
Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories....
Sometimes, 12-year-old Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few black boys at Middlefield Prep, most of the students don't look like him. They don't like him either....
For 13-year-old Sam it's not easy being the son of known civil-rights activist Roland Childs....
A boy tries to steer a safe path through the projects in Harlem in the wake of his brother’s death in this outstanding debut novel that celebrates community and creativity....
There are 96 things Genesis hates about herself. She knows the exact number because she keeps a list. Like number 95: Because her skin is so dark, people call her charcoal and eggplant - even her own family....
When America is not so beautiful, or right, or just, it can be hard to know what to do. Best friends Walt and Noah decide to use their voices to grow more good in the world, but first they've got to find cool....
Zoe Washington isn’t sure what to write. What does a girl say to the father she’s never met, hadn’t heard from until his letter arrived on her 12th birthday, and who’s been in prison for a terrible crime? A crime he says he never committed....
Beach-loving surfer Alberta has been the only black girl in town for years. Alberta's best friend, Laramie, is the closest thing she has to a sister, but there are some things even Laramie can't understand....
Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week....