MMGM- Black Girl Power

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Johnson, Leah, Ed. Black Girl Power

Cover art by Vashti Harrison

November 12, 2024 by Freedom Fire

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

This had such a good variety of stories that I am going to try to give very brief synopses of each one, along with the middle grade books that the authors have written. I love short story collections for introducing my students to new authors!

In Elise Bryant's New Rules, Maya is anxious about starting middle school, especially without her best friend, Coral, who seems to understand how everyone is supposed to act at this new educational level. After meeting the equally nervous Taylor, she realizes that everyone is a bit unsure of themselves. As I tell my middle school students frequently, "No one is looking at you! They're too worried about themselves."

Dhonielle Clayton (The Marvellers) spins a magical tale set in New Orleans, First Bite, about Bird, who is supposed to help her sisters trap humans in order to fill the blood bank. When she runs away from them, she meets a human, Cameron, and helps him get back to his grandmother without getting eaten. 

Natasha Diaz's One of Those Days follows Zetta as she spends one last day in Harlem before her mother moves her away. Or is it a dream? 

Tọlá Okogwu (Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun) writes about a girl who would like to sing opera, but it's not in her Ghanian immigrant parents' plans for her in An Aria for Abi. When Abi can't try out for the school opera production because she's promised her mother she won't miss track practice, her sister Jola covers for her, because she knows what it is like to give up something she loves to make her parents happy. 

Sharon M. Draper's Last Chocolate Cookie is a devastatingly sad tale of Cookie, who has a great day with her twin brother, Mookie, racing bikes and being outside with friends, until is ends in tragedy. And yes, we should all wear out bike helmets EVERY TIME we get on a bike. (Blended, Stella by Starlight, many others.)

Roseanne A. Brown (Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting) takes us to Marcia Marmalade's School of Confectionery Magic in Créme de la Créme, where we meet Abby, who has gotten into trouble for blowing up a tower of macarons. The school is full of very rich students, but because Abby wanted to attend so badly, her mother took a job in the cafeteria to help with tuition. Classmate Celeste bullies other students, and when Abby's mother steps in, Celeste targets her. 

 

Janae Marks' (From the Desk of Zoe Washington, A Soft Place to Land) Convention Girl follows Aria as she is helping her mother and sister Jade run their booth at the Natural Brand Expo. She's still hurting because her best friend Charlotte isn't talking to her since she won the science fair, but running into her idol, a STEM activist,  gives her the boost she needs to believe in herself again. 

Black Girl, Be by Renée Watson reminded me that she also worked on the poetry book Black Girl, You Are Atlas, along with prose titles like Some Places More Than Other. Her poems talks about all the different ways that Black girls can unapologeticallyl be a wide variety of their authentic selves. 

Amerie's The House Downstairs is a rather creepy look at two girls who move into their aunt's Victorian house with their mother after their parents divorce and her father stays in Los Angeles with their halmeoni and harabeoji. Sunday and Rose start to travel into the house in their dreams, but when their mother gets stuck there, they have to help her, along with Zora and her family, escape. 

Sharon Flake (Pinned) takes a look at Amore, who was elected president of her class even though she didn't really want the position in Fake President. After making the principal angry by promising her classmates a trip to an amusement park, Amore and her friend Happy manage to pull off a Seventh Grade Fun Day. 

In The Witch in Apartment 2B by Karen Strong (Eden's Everdark, Just South of Home) introduces us to Cherry, who is being bullied by girls in her class. She seeks help from Miss Alice, a neighbor whom she believes to be a witch. Miss Alice gives her two ordinary tea bags to steep and drink, as well as the mantra "I am worthy and deserve to be protected from harm." Will this be enough to encourage her to speak up against the girls giving her a hard time? And is it really magic? 

The subject of Black hair care is front and center in Kalyn Bayron's (The Vanquishers) Auntie Ro. While Janelle's father does a decent job of styling her hair, as she gets older, she wants different styles. Neighbor Ro works with her to teach her different ways to do her hair, encouraging her to stick up for herself and to find her own community of women. 

Kekla Magoon (The Secret Library, The Season of Styx Malone) unpacks the fun and trauma of staying overnight with friends in The Sleepover. It's Cordie's first, and she's meeting new people. There are quizzes, discussions of crushes, pizza, and somewhat cruel fashion makeovers, but when it is discovered that she's brought a favorite stuffed animal with her, everyone admits that they have one too, even if they weren't brave enough to bring it. 

Rice & Beans, Rhythm and Beats by Ibi Zoboi (My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich) introduces us to several girls at Clover Middle School. Beatrice is afraid to eat her Haitian food in the cafeteria until she meets Soraya, who is not going to let anyone stand in the way of her enjoying her Trinidadian fare. The two also become friends with Esther, from Ghana, and Nneka, who has a Nigerian background. The four argue about which culture's rice dish is best, and decide to try out for the school step team even though some of the girls on it seem mean. 

Finally, in Leah Johnson's (Ellie Engle Saves Herself) Brave, we meet Billie, who is a scrappy ten year old hockey player who is having a lot of nose bleeds and excessive bruising. After her teacher alerts her parents, she is diagnosed with ITP, Immune thrombocytopenia, a condition that requires transfusions on globulin for a year, which means that she won't be able to play hockey. She throws a fit about this, and is ready to refuse treatment until Maggie, who is getting chemo for leukemia, convinces her otherwise. 

The end of the book has nice biographies of all of the authors, along with their pictures, which will help readers who liked particular stories find other titles to pick up!