I had hoped to share this list last month but my procrastination lined up perfectly for Black History Month, so let’s go with it. Today we are going to explore some new YA books written by Black authors coming out in 2021 for you to read this month and all year long.
While quite a few of these were on my most anticipated YA books for this year, that list was just a small sliver of upcoming books I’m excited for! I’m excited to share even more books that made my reading list for this year.
This is in no way a definitive a list of ALL the upcoming young adult books coming out by black authors — just the ones I’m personally MOST excited about. I’d love to hear about the ones you are anticipating that aren’t on my list!
It’s also only the books from January through June — stay tuned for updates for the rest of the year.
A Little Tip…
Below you’ll see Bookshop.org mentioned. Bookshop.org is a fantastic place to buy books online that supports local bookstores. If you are looking to shop small when it comes to your books, I personally buy my books from here (when I can’t shop in person) and highly recommend! Local bookstores are the heart of communities and Bookshop.org makes it SUPER easy to support them.
YA Books By Black Authors To Read In 2021
There are so many good books coming out this year! From Black Joy and romance to hard-hitting stories of hardship to unique fantastical worlds…literally everything you could want on this list genre-wise.
I’ve been blogging since 2010 and it’s so heartening to see how far we’ve come with representation in YA lit. We still have a long way to go but I love not only seeing many, many more books by Black authors but there is so much more intersectional stories and diversity in genre and the types of stories being told.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links which means that if you click on a link and purchase something I’ve talked about or recommended, I’ll receive a very small percentage of the sale. Please see my disclosure policy for more info
The sophomore novel of Maika and Maritza (two sisters) is about an activist named Kezi who dies under mysterious circumstances at a social justice rally and the sisters (and family) that are left reeling in the aftermath.
As Kezi becomes a rallying cry in the fight against police brutality, the sisters struggle with the way idealized way she’s being remembered, and the concept of which victims are “the good ones”, and embark on a journey to pay their own tribute to their sister.
A coming of age story about a boy whose sister goes missing, who he first assumes is just with her drug dealer boyfriend disappearing for a bit, but soon realizes something else must be going on and he sets off to find her with the police being no help in finding her.
If you like rom coms in the vein of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, check out this one!
It’s about a girl who loves to write romance and is accepted for a prestigious writing opportunity only to find she’s hit a huge writer’s block. When a friend suggests she needs some real life love story inspiration to help her out of it, inspired by romance novels, she creates a master plan for her own happily ever after — only to realize it might not be the one she thought she wanted.
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The setting for this YA historical is in 1921 during the Greenwood Massacre on what is known as Black Wall Street and follows two teenagers who have known of each other for all their years in school but haven’t really KNOWN each other until they work the same job and spend more time ago. And then life changes for them when a white mob storms their community.
A novel in verse, Chlorine Sky, is a coming of age story about a girl and the crumbling of her relationship with her best friend.
I used to not think I liked novels in verse until I read Clap When You Land so I am especially pumped to keep exploring them and this one sounds like something I’d love because FRIEND BREAKUPS are an insta-pickup for me.
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High school Senior Frankie is about to leave his home in Jamaica to attend college, on scholarship, in the United States to become an engineer. Until his dad gets shot. His dreams and future slip away as he joins his uncle’s gang to pay for his dad’s medical bills.
An urban fantasy that is equal parts adventure and social commentary that holds up a mirror to real world issues is your jam, check out this new YA release that I’ve seen billed as The Hate U Give meets Black Panther with a Katniss-like lead.
It’s about young Black teen from a poor neighborhood in Houston who, after her mom is killed, is whisked away from her home and her sister by her estranged dad who takes her to a secret country populated by gods.
There she finds out her true heritage and the fact that those on this island thrive on human suffering and she’s not allowed to leave.
When she sneaks off to go see her sister, she finds out things have gotten bad in her neighborhood and she must use her new-found magical identity to save her beloved community from the evil ravaging it.
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Another novel in verse for my list! This one is given me major Grown vibes (one of my fave books of last year) in a ripped-from-the-headlines plot about a young singer catapulted into fame and the dark side of the industry that she finds.
Andre a Black teen and a cancer survivor who receives a liver transplant. Not only did he receive a new liver but, after something strange happens, he finds out from the donor family that he’s inherited the ability to time travel and the brother of the donor will help him learn how to use it.
As he spends time in the past and the present he finds a love with a boy in the 1960’s but things get complicated in the present when an unexpected love blossoms.
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The wait for this one has been excruciating as it was supposed to come out last year but then got pushed back to this year!
This one is a West-African inspired fantasy, the first in a new series, about an outcast who joins an all-girl army filled with girls who have special gifts like her who are the only ones who can defeat the threat looming over their empire.
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As soon as I saw a comparison to “On My Block” (I love that show so much) plus some of my fave young adult writers, I knew I needed this.
It’s about a teen girl whose life is shaken to its core after an act of vandalism in her neighborhood occurs, a neighborhood already changed by a deadly incident years ago, and everything (relationships, her neighborhood) is thrown into upheaval as the spotlight on the act is thrust into the national spotlight and outsiders begin to try to “help fix” her neighborhood.
An emotional story about a girl, estranged from the neighbors who were like family after a kiss ruined everything, who finds herself back in their orbit pretending to be dating one of the brother’s in that family during their mom’s last month of her life.
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A rom-com about a self proclaimed romance expert & transgender teen’s first love and how it challenges his ideas about perfect relationships.
Noah is the author of a popular blog all about trans meet-cutes and happily ever after stories — all stories that Noah has fabricated from his own romantic fantasies and daydreams that he’s kept going as it has become a source of hope for so many trans teens.
When a troll exposes his blog as fake, he plans a fake dating scheme to prove a troll wrong and save the blog.
It’s about a girl whose epic notebook full of all her lists, lists about anything and everything and some deeply personal, goes missing and soon she finds one of her lists posted on social media.
To get her notebook back and avoid her blackmailer releasing the whole notebook, she’s told she must knock off all the things on her greatest fears list. She ends up tackling the list and trying to find out who has her notebook with an unlikely ally.
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It’s a coming of age story about a teenager whose Dad only lives with them part time and then the other half of the year he lives in his home in Jamaica.
Then one summer her mom tells her that she’s going to spend the summer with him in Jamaica — a trip she is wary of but also wanting in some ways — and she could never be prepared for what she experiences that summer.
Looks like a hard-hitting emotional story with set in the backdrop of a hurricane.
Inspired by Persuasion and set in Tobago, this is a second chance romance between childhood best friends and first loves about a girl who feels left behind working at her family’s resort instead of pursing her dreams and, the boy, who left to pursue his now soaring music career and ends up coming back to stay at her family’s resort with his whole entourage.
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A new contemporary romance from Nicola Yoon with a dash of magic! If you are looking for lighter YA books with black female leads, definitely check out this one.
It’s about a girl who doesn’t believe in love anymore after her dad’s infidelity and then that feeling grows when she witnesses a couple kiss and suddenly sees the story of their meeting…and how the relationship ends.
As she tries to figure out why she can see this in couples, she finds herself taking ballroom dance lessons and meeting a guy named X who becomes her dance partner and whom she starts to fall making her question if a great love story is worth the risk of heartbreak.
So those are the YA novels I’m excited about from African American and Black authors (all with Black protagonists). What Black YA books are you excited about? Let’s celebrate Black YA lit all year long — tell me some of the best YA books written by Black authors you’ve read.
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Hasini @ Bibliosini says
I love this list! I had a few of them on my Goodreads TBR and ended up adding the rest! Thanks for this!!!