Teen Booklists

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Teen Story Starters

Looking for some inspiration? Listen to the first few pages of these young adult selections, read by your Glendale Library Staff.
Story Starters

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

by Ibi Zoboi

A collection of short stories explore what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teenagers and emphasizing that one person's experiences, reality, and personal identity are different than someone else.

Punching the Air

by Ibi Zoboi with Yusef Salaam

From award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. With spellbinding lyricism, the authors tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip him of both.

Tyler Johnson was Here

by Jay Coles

When Marvin Johnson's twin, Tyler, goes to a party, Marvin decides to tag along to keep an eye on his brother. But what starts as harmless fun turns into a shooting, followed by a police raid. The next day Tyler is missing, and it's up to Marvin to find him. But when Tyler is found dead, a video leaked online tells an even more chilling story: Tyler has been shot and killed by a police officer. Terrified as his mother unravels, mourning a brother who is now a hashtag, Marvin must learn what justice and freedom really mean.

The Black Flamingo

by Dean Atta

Michael is a mixed-race gay teen growing up in London. All his life, he’s navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican - but never quite feeling Greek or Black enough. As he gets older, Michael’s coming out is only the start of learning who he is and where he fits in. When he discovers the Drag Society, he finally finds where he belongs - and the Black Flamingo is born. Told with raw honesty, insight, and lyricism, this debut explores the layers of identity that make us who we are - and allow us to shine.

The Black Kids

by Christina Hammonds Reed

Los Angeles, 1992. It's the end of senior year and Ashley Bennett and her friends are spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. When four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death, violent protests engulf LA and the city burns. Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal; her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. The model black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents built starts to crumble. Her friends are spreading a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson. Ashley is left to question who is the ‘us’? And who is the ‘them’?

Piecing me together

by Renée Watson

Every day Jade rides the bus out of her poor neighborhood and away from her friends to the private school where she feels like an outsider. She doesn't really welcome the invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Just because her mentor is black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope.

On the Come Up

by Angie Thomas

As the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. She's been labeled a hoodlum at school, and the fridge at home is empty after her mom loses her job. So Bri pours her anger and frustration into her first song, which goes viral for all the wrong reasons. Portrayed by the media as a menace, Bri makes a choice-- and becomes the very thing the public has made her out to be. The odds are stacked against her, and freedom of speech isn't always free.

Dear Justyce

by Nic Stone

In the stunning and hard-hitting sequel to the New York Times bestseller Dear Martin, incarcerated teen Quan Banks writes letters to Justyce McCallister, with whom he bonded years before over family issues, about his experiences in the American juvenile justice system.

Calling My Name

by Liara Tamani

Taja Brown, growing up in a conservative and tightly knit African American family, battles family expectations to discover a sense of self and find her unique voice and purpose.

You Should See Me in a Crown

by Leah Johnson

Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school, after all, her family is black and rather poor, especially since her mother died; instead she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through she is forced to turn to her school's scholarship for prom king and queen, which plunges her into the gauntlet of social media which she hates and leads her to discoveries about her own identity and the value of true friendships.

The black friend: on being a better white person

by Frederick Joseph

From the perspective of the friend everyone should have, Frederick Joseph offers an essential read for white people who want to be better about race—and people of color who long to see their experiences validated.

When they call you a terrorist (young adult edition) : A Story of Black Lives Matter and the Power to Change the World

by Patrisse Khan-Cullors

Patrisse Khan-Cullors' and asha bandele's instant New York Times bestseller, When They Call You a Terrorist, is now adapted for the YA audience with photos and journal entries! In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.

Stolen justice : the struggle for African American voting rights

by Lawrence Goldstone

In this vivid portrait of the systematic suppression of the African American vote, critically acclaimed author Lawrence Goldstone traces the injustices of the post-Reconstruction era through the eyes of incredible individuals, both heroic and barbaric, and examines the legal cases that made the Supreme Court a partner of white supremacists in the rise of Jim Crow. Though this is a story of America's past, Goldstone brilliantly draws direct links to today's creeping threats to suffrage in this important and, alas, timely book.

One person, no vote : how not all voters are treated equally

by Carol Anderson with Tonya Bolden

Known as the Shelby ruling, the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 effectively allowed districts with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice. In the aftermath of Shelby, more and more states have adopted voter suppression laws, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. But with that has come the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans.

March

by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin art by Nate Powell

This graphic novel trilogy is a first-hand account of the late Congressman John Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.

Growing up in slavery : stories of young slaves as told by themselves

edited by Yuval Taylor illustrations by Kathleen Judge

Ten slaves - all under the age of 19 - tell their stories of enslavement, brutality, and dreams of freedom.