Black Girl Power: 15 Stories Celebrating Black Girlhood
edited by Leah Johnson
Intermediate, Middle School    Freedom Fire/Disney    320 pp.
11/24    9781368098960    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781368098984    $10.99

Common early adolescent issues and those particular to Black girls are covered with depth and heart in this short story collection by fifteen authors. The protagonists are all in middle school, and many of them are struggling to fit in with their peers. Several entries deal with the fissure that often develops among friends as children transition from elementary to middle school. In “The Sleepover” by Kekla Magoon, for example, Cordie is mortified when a group of girls discovers that she’s brought a stuffie to her first slumber party. “This humiliation would follow her for the rest of her life, she was sure.” Fans of fantasy and magical realism will also find tales to enjoy, such as “First Bite” by Dhonielle Clayton and “The House Downstairs” by Amerie. Renée Watson’s prose poem, “Black Girl, Be,” sums up the theme of this anthology: “Your birthright is brilliance and creativity… / Be Black girl. Be.”

From the March/April 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.