Renée Watson

This gorgeous picture book introduces young readers to the life and work of Maya Angelou, whose words have uplifted and inspired generations of readers. The author of the celebrated autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya was the first Black person and first woman to recite a poem at a presidential inauguration, and her influence echoes through culture and history. She was also the first Black woman to appear on the United States quarter....

"A biography of Oprah Winfrey, part of the She Persisted chapter book series" --

"Middle school is just around the corner for Ryan Hart, which means it's time to start thinking about the future--and not just how to prank her brother, Ray! During Black History Month, Ryan learns more about her ancestors and local Black pioneers, and their hopes for the future, for her generation. She wonders who she wants to be and what kind of person her family hopes she becomes. Drawing on the ambitions of those who came before her and her own...

Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for...

Everything and everyone has a story, a beginning. All Amara wants for her birthday is to visit her father's family in New York City - Harlem, to be exact. She can't wait to meet her grandpa Earl and cousins in person, to stay in the brownstone where her father grew up, and to hear all the stories about the family she never knew. But New York City is not exactly what Amara thought it would be, and neither is her family's reunion. Still, as she explores,...

Ryan is caught between two friends who both want to be her best friend, her brother ruins her latest baking project, and a classmate keeps teasing her at school, yet Ryan still looks for a way to see the bright side of things and not let anything steal her joy.

Twins Nikki and Maya Younger always agreed on most things, but as they head into their senior year they react differently to the gentrification of their Portland, Oregon, neighborhood and the new--white--family that moves in after their best friend and her mother are evicted--

Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement.

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...

"At 40, Lena Baker is at a steady and stable moment in life--between wine nights with her two best friends and her wedding just weeks away, she's happy in love and in friendship until a confession on her wedding day shifts her world. Unmoored and grieving a major loss, Lena finds herself trying to teach her daughter self-love while struggling to do so herself. Lena questions everything she's learned about dating, friendship, and motherhood, and through...