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![Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America by [Ibi Zoboi, Tracey Baptiste, Coe Booth, Dhonielle Clayton, Brandy Colbert, Jay Coles, Lamar Giles, Leah Henderson, Justina Ireland, Varian Johnson, Kekla Magoon, Tochi Onyebuchi, Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Liara Tamani, Renée Watson, Rita Williams-Garcia]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ztx2wT4eL._SY346_.jpg)
Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America Kindle Edition
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Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today—Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America. A selection of the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List.
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 race, immigrants, and more—because there are countless ways to be Black enough.
Contributors:
Justina Ireland
Varian Johnson
Rita Williams-Garcia
Dhonielle Clayton
Kekla Magoon
Leah Henderson
Tochi Onyebuchi
Jason Reynolds
Nic Stone
Liara Tamani
Renée Watson
Tracey Baptiste
Coe Booth
Brandy Colbert
Jay Coles
Ibi Zoboi
Lamar Giles
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBalzer + Bray
- Publication dateJanuary 8, 2019
- Reading age13 - 17 years
- Grade level8 - 9
- File size2546 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Each entry is deftly woven and full of such complex humanity that teens will identify with and see some of their own struggles in these characters...Offer[s] a rich tableau of the black teen diaspora in an accessible way.
-- "School Library Journal"[A] poignant collection of stunning short stories by black rock-star authors
-- "Booklist (starred review)"The stories, all worth savoring, share a celebratory outlook on black teenagers fully and courageously embracing life.
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"A diverse and compelling fiction anthology...A breath of fresh air and a sigh of long overdue relief. Nuanced and necessary.
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)" --This text refers to the audioCD edition.About the Author
From School Library Journal
Review
Each entry is deftly woven and full of such complex humanity that teens will identify with and see some of their own struggles in these characters...Offer[s] a rich tableau of the black teen diaspora in an accessible way.
-- "School Library Journal"[A] poignant collection of stunning short stories by black rock-star authors
-- "Booklist (starred review)"The stories, all worth savoring, share a celebratory outlook on black teenagers fully and courageously embracing life.
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"A diverse and compelling fiction anthology...A breath of fresh air and a sigh of long overdue relief. Nuanced and necessary.
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)" --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Product details
- ASIN : B078LY93MD
- Publisher : Balzer + Bray; Reprint edition (January 8, 2019)
- Publication date : January 8, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 2546 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 407 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #362,006 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Tracey Baptiste is the New York Times bestselling author of MINECRAFT: THE CRASH and the popular JUMBIES series including THE JUMBIES, RISE OF THE JUMBIES, and THE JUMBIE GOD’S REVENGE. Upcoming 2021 books include the picture book LOOKING FOR A JUMBIE and the middle grade nonfiction AFRICAN ICONS: TEN PEOPLE WHO BUILT A CONTINENT. Find Tracey online at www.traceybaptiste.com and connect on Twitter @traceybaptiste and on Instagram @traceybaptistewrites.
The first name bits:
What Jason knows is that there are a lot — A LOT — of people, young, old, and in-between, who hate reading. He knows that many of these book haters are boys. He knows that many of these book-hating boys, don't actually hate books, they hate boredom. If you are reading this, and you happen to be one of these boys, first of all, you're reading this Jason's master plan is already working (muahahahahahaha) and second of all, know that Jason totally feels you. He REALLY does. Because even though he's a writer, he hates reading boring books too.
So here's what he plans to do: NOT WRITE BORING BOOKS.
That's it, and that's all.
Now, for the last name bits:
Jason Reynolds is an award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author. Jason’s many books include Miles Morales: Spider Man, the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu), Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Correta Scott King Honor, and Look Both Ways, which was a National Book Award Finalist. His latest book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, is a collaboration with Ibram X. Kendi. Recently named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jason has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and CBS This Morning. He is on faculty at Lesley University, for the Writing for Young People MFA Program and lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.
Lamar Giles writes for teens and adults across multiple genres, with work appearing on numerous Best Of lists each and every year. He is the author of the acclaimed novels Fake ID, Endangered, Overturned, Spin, The Last Last-Day-of-Summer, Not So Pure and Simple, and The Last Mirror on the Left as well as numerous pieces of short fiction. He is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books and resides in Virginia with his wife.
Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times Bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist, Pride, a contemporary remix of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and a middle-grade debut, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich. She is the editor of Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America. She co-authored the Walter Award and L.A. Times Book Prize-winning novel-in-verse, Punching the Air, with Exonerated Five member, Yusef Salaam. Her debut picture book, The People Remember, received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award. Her most recent books include Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, and Okoye to the People: A Black Panther Novel for Marvel. Ibi lives in New Jersey with her husband, a high school art teacher, and their three teenage children. Visit Ibi at www.ibizoboi.net.
Leah Henderson is a writer, mentor, and avid traveler. She loves getting lost and then found all over the world. She holds an MFA in writing and is on faculty at Spalding University's graduate writing program. You can find Leah on Twitter @LeahsMark and on her website at: www.leahhendersonbooks.com
Renée Watson is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and community activist. Her young adult novel, Piecing Me Together (Bloomsbury, 2017) received a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor. Her children's picture books and novels for teens have received several awards and international recognition. She has given readings and lectures at many renown places including the United Nations, the Library of Congress, and the U.S. Embassy in Japan and New Zealand. Her poetry and fiction centers around the experiences of Black girls and women, and explores themes of home, identity, and the intersections of race, class, and gender.
Her books include young adult novels, Love is a Revolution, Piecing Me Together, This Side of Home, and Watch Us Rise, co-written with Ellen Hagan. Her middle grade novels include the Ryan Hart series, (Ways to Make Sunshine and Ways to Grow Love), Some Places More Than Others, Betty Before X, co-authored with Ilyasah Shabazz, and What Momma Left Me. Her picture book, Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills received several honors including an NAACP Image Award nomination in children’s literature.
One of Renée’s passions is using the arts to help youth cope with trauma and discuss social issues. Her picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen is based on poetry workshops she facilitated with children in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Renée was a writer in residence for over twenty years teaching creative writing and theater in public schools and community centers throughout the nation. She founded I, Too Arts Collective, a nonprofit that was housed in the home of Langston Hughes from 2016-2019. Watson is on the Council of Writers for the National Writing Project and is a member of the Academy of American Poets’ Education Advisory Council. She is also a writer-in-residence at The Solstice Low-Residency Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College.
Renée grew up in Portland, Oregon, and splits her time between Portland and New York City.
Customer reviews
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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"Tessa was a person who could wreak havoc with a sentence. Sixteen years doesn’t seem like long, but how many lives could a person with that kind of power have ruined in her time?"
"The man cried so badly, his tears glittered like constellations of stardust."
"All night, his fingers had flown over his keyboard, writing line after line of code so fast, it felt like he was playing music."
"It was the nerdiest, most backhanded compliment Mak had ever gotten, Kamari suggesting that Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, beauty, and pleasure, was Mak’s mother."
I'd typically choose one quote as representative of the book, but with so many voices, just one feels like neglecting the others. Each character discovering and learning to embrace their true selves is beautiful, varying from Black enough to sexual identity, breaking free of parental rule, letting intelligence and horniness shine, and so much more.
It's a book of teens learning their place in this world, and making it their own with growing confidence and strength. Beautiful, I recommend for anyone who has ever felt not enough.
This collection of stories covers a wide range of adventures. Enjoyable for any and all teen and adult readers as the stories range from exploring queerness, being biracial, and immigrating from other countries, to dealing with divorce and half-siblings and more.
If you’re a white reader, like I am, this will build empathy and knock down pre-conceived notions of what it means to be Black in America. If you’re a Black/African-American reader, I imagine that you will feel seen and feel lots of comradery with the characters.
Definitely put this on your list of must-reads.
Top reviews from other countries


“Black Enough” é uma colecção de contos escritos por autores pretos que visa mostrar situações comuns de ser jovem e pertencente a uma minoria nos EUA. No entanto, nem sempre esse facto é o que está em evidência nestes textos, afinal ser adolescente por si só pode ser um verdadeiro drama que é transversal a todos os seres humanos.


Told either in first, second, or third person perspectives', this collection includes a variety of stories that made this reader experience many different emotions.
Now, whilst some stories were fun and light-hearted to read: stories of unrequited crushes, being young, finding love and gaining freedom, other stories touched on more life-defining and serious moments a teenager could go through in their life: moments of discovering ones sexuality, the power of music, a forbidden romance between rival families, the tragedy of death, suicide, family issues, along with dealing with racism, homophobia, and so much more.
It's 400 pages of two Introductions and seventeen unique and (some) powerful stories that I could not get enough of.
When I wasn't laughing out loud and smiling big at the fun and entertaining stories included - such as ones like 'Black. Nerd. Problems.', 'Woah!', 'Kissing Sarah Smart', and 'Into the Starlight' - I was devouring the meaningful story that was being told; a story that made me think, feel, and listen to the message within - like with 'Black Enough', 'Warning: Color May Fade', 'Out of the Silence', 'Wild Horses, Wild Hearts', and 'The Trouble with Drowning'.
There is one story in particular - Gravity by Tracey Baptise - that is quite triggering as, told in second person perspective, this story shows how a young girl deals with being sexually assaulted in a public area, though being young and having made the first move, she weights the options on whether to tell or keep quiet as she knows from second-hand experience that some, if not many people will twist her story on her and say she asked for it. Whilst I liked the story, how it was written, and the way this author had me seeing the story play out so vividly in my mind, it was just too vivid for my taste, and considering it was told in second person perspective, it was hard to feel separate from the character, and left me feeling uncomfortable throughout the entire story.
My reason for the four stars however, has to do with the fact that considering each story is a short story, the lack of a blurb to let us know not what the story was about - but WHO - left me feeling confused at times; was I reading about a young girl, or a young boy? Sometimes the gender, along with the characters' name, wasn't revealed for pages later, and it made me struggle to connect with the story when I started reading one in a female's perspective, but all along it was a male's.
Overall though, this collection was perfect and really delivered some unforgettable and impactful stories that I'm still thinking about days later. You'll either love them, or hate them - each story is different enough to get a different reaction from its reader.
I'd definitely recommend this collection of short stories to anyone looking for one.
TW: sexual assault, words of racism and homophobia

Overall, over the course of a set of fun, mostly page-turning, sometimes touching short stories, I learned that black american kids are kids, much the same as white British kids are kids. With the exception of a few words I had to look up and bits of slang, I'm not sure there was anything I learned here that I didn't know already from TV shows. That may be because I've watched a lot of TV shows which feature young black people in America, and have just been watching This Is Us, which deals with much more nuance with the theme of a black person in a majority white community. That crops up a few times here, as do the class divides that emerge in a socially aspirant population.
I am also very aware that in the 'woke' world we live in, there is a lot of messaging that goes on: this collection clearly has an agenda, and with that in mind I realised it's hard to know if this is an accurate representation of being young and black in America.
Overall, these are well-written, enjoyable stories, sometimes touching, often intriguing. Like all collections of short stories, it lacks something, for me, because just as you get to know the characters they disappear, but each of the writers in this collection have other novels, so you can use this to find out who you want to read next. Only one of the stories was so odd/dull that I found I had to skip it, and the last two were among the best, so make sure to read to the end.