Reading YA Novels
Young adult (YA) literature usually focuses on teenagers. However, although the publishing industry markets these books primarily to young people, they are not always read by young people. About 55% of today’s YA readers are adults, according to The Atlantic. YA books are about growing up, and as adults, we are often still growing.
Coming of age is the transition of young people from childhood to adulthood. The stories of these novels feature Black characters forced to face fear, take responsibility for their actions, and see and fight against the unjust nature of the world.
Anne of West Philly by Ivy Noelle Weir
Anne of Green Gables with a twist: in this follow-up to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy and The Secret Garden on 81st Street, this full-color graphic novel moves Anne Shirley to modern-day West Philadelphia, where where she finds new friends, new rivals, and a new family.
When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert decide to foster a teenage girl for the first time, their lives are changed forever. Their redheaded foster daughter, Anne Shirley, is in search of an exciting life and has decided that West Philly is where she’s going to find it. Armed with a big personality and unstoppable creativity, Anne takes her new home by storm as she joins the robotics club, makes new friends in Diana and Gilbert, experiences first love, and turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. But as Anne starts to get comfortable, she discovers one thing she wasn’t looking for: a family.
YA Stories Are For Adults Too
YA novels sometimes explore the intensity of falling in love for the first time. It is not uncommon for lesbians and other queers to come out later in life. For many women, the initial intensity of lesbian love occurs later in life.
Blackout: A Novel by Dhonielle Clayton, Nicola Yoon, Ashley Woodfolk, Angie Thomas, Nic Stone, Tiffany D. Jackson
Six critically acclaimed, bestselling, and award-winning authors bring the glowing warmth and electricity of Black teens in love to this charming, hilarious, and heartwarming novel that shines a bright light through the dark.
A summer heatwave blankets New York City in darkness. But as the city is thrown into confusion, a different kind of electricity sparks.
A first meeting.
Long-time friends.
Bitter exes.
And maybe the beginning of something new.
When the lights go out, people reveal hidden truths. Love blossoms, friendship transforms, and new possibilities take flight.
Beloved authors–Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon–celebrate the beauty of six couples and the unforgettable magic that can be found on a sweltering starry night in the city.
Later in Life
Some women who came out later in life had never been married, had never been in a serious relationship with a man, or had been involved in serious heterosexual dating. come out by having a child, participating in the straight dating scene for a long time. Other women come out after getting married, having children, or after participating in the straight dating scene for a long time.
Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk
From New York Times bestselling author Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You is an impassioned stand-alone tale of queer love, grief, and the complexity of female friendship.
Two girls. One wild and reckless day. Years of tumultuous history unspooling like a thin, fraying string in the hours after they set a fire.
They were best friends. Until they became more. Their affections grew. Until the blurry lines became dangerous.
Over the course of a single day, the depth of their past, the confusion of their present, and the unpredictability of their future is revealed. And the girls will learn that hearts, like flames, aren’t so easily tamed.
It starts with a fire.
How will it end?
YA For Exploration
People can go to YA Black Lesbian literature and explore a reality different from theirs. But it’s also possible for adults to read YA and encounter familiar feelings, challenges, and relationships from their own lives…providing the level of intimacy that many LGBT readers and black women crave. Whether you’re looking for something new or familiar, YA lesbian novels with Black characters may be for you.
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Briseis has a gift: with a single touch she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms. When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents hope that surrounded by plants and flowers, she will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they never expected?
It comes with a mysterious set of instructions, a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world, and generations of secrets. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it.
