Williams-Garcia Rita

A tour-de-force collection of stories about the black experience, by award-winning, bestselling, and emerging African American YA authors. Black is...two sisters navigating their relationship at summer camp in Portland, Oregon, as written by Renée Watson.Black is…Jason Reynolds writing about three guys walking back from the community pool talking about nothing and everything.Black is…Nic Stone’s bougie debutante 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 race, immigrants, and more—because there are countless ways to be black enough. Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, this is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and black in America.

From National Book Award finalist Rita Williams-Garcia Denzel Watson is a fast talker with a system, and it's made him valedictorian. But when he goes to a summer program at Princeton, he takes a fall. How can he tell his proud family that he won't be able to cut it in the Ivy League? Instead, he spends the rest of the summer selling candy, up against Top Man Mello, a drop-out with a police record. For the first time, Denzel is forced to take a hard look at himself -- and how much further he could fall. Williams-Garcia confronts some crucial issues that are generally ignored in YA fiction: issues of class and race, friendship and competition, identity and failure. --Booklist Teens everywhere will be able to identify and commiserate with Denzel. School Library Journal, starred review