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Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

by Ibi Zoboi

Subject
Short Stories, Collections & Anthologies
Age
Teen
Format
Hardcover
Pages
416
Publisher
Balzer & Bray/Harperteen
Size
14.5 cm × 21.1 cm
ISBN
9780062698728

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

About the creators

Ibi ZoboiAuthor

Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist; Nigeria Jones, a Coretta Scott King Award winner; Pride; My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich; Okoye to the People: A Black Panther Novel for Marvel; and the Walter Award and LA Times Book Prize–winning Punching the Air, cowritten with Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam. She is also a two-time Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner for her picture book The People Remember and her middle grade biography of Octavia Butler, Star Child. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives in New Jersey with her family. You can find her online at ibizoboi.net.

Tracey BaptisteAuthor

Tracey Baptiste is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle grade novels Minecraft: The Crash, The Jumbies, Rise of the Jumbies, and The Jumbie God’s Revenge. A former elementary school teacher, Tracey is now on the faculty at Lesley University’s creative writing MFA program. Raised in Trinidad until she was fifteen, she now lives with her family in New Jersey. You can visit her online at traceybaptiste.com.

Dhonielle ClaytonAuthor

Dhonielle Clayton is the New York Times bestselling author of the Belles series and The Marvellers and the coauthor of The Rumor Game and the Tiny Pretty Things duology, which was made into a Netflix original series. She is COO of the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books and the owner of Cake Creative.

Brandy ColbertAuthor

Brandy Colbert is the award-winning author of several books for children and teens, including Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which was the winner of the 2022 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and a finalist for the American Library Association's Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award. Her other acclaimed books include The Blackwoods, Pointe, The Voting Booth, The Only Black Girls in Town, and the Stonewall Book Award winner Little & Lion. A member of the faculty at Hamline University's MFA program in writing for children, Brandy lives in Los Angeles. You can find her online at brandycolbert.com.

Data provided by BiblioShare.

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What reviewers said

“A poignant collection of stunning short stories by Black, rock star authors”
Booklist (starred review)
“A breath of fresh air…nuanced and necessary.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred 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... This collection presents the beauty of black humanity in all its many forms.”
School Library Journal (starred review)
“The stories, all worth savoring, share a celebratory outlook on black teenagers fully and courageously embracing life.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Ibi Zoboi, author of National Book Award finalist American Street and Jane Austen update Pride, dazzles again with this stunning, marvelously diverse collection of 17 stories of the teen experience by black authors [writing] ‘about teens examining, rebelling against, embracing, or simply existing within their own idea of blackness.’”
Buffalo News
Praise for AMERICAN STREET: “Mixing gritty street life with the tenderness of first love, Haitian Vodou, and family bonds, the book is at once chilling, evocative, and reaffirming.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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© 2026 Peekabooks Inc. All Rights Reserved.