Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

I think this is the most fully stylish book jacket I've ever seen, so well designed. As for the content, Zoboi gathered an all-star cast of 17 Black YA authors for this anthology, specifically to write/show that Black culture is not a monolith (wonderful!). It was a little uneven, with authors I've loved delivering some lows (Jay Coles, Kekla Magoon, & Rita Williams-Garcia in particular), but mostly the stories were good to great. My favorite stories were from Jason Reynolds (short but so sumptously written, he's just showing off with his skill at this point, writing that well about sandwiches!), Nic Stone, Ibi Zoboi (best line - “charter schools were full of young white women from the Midswest thinking they could change the world and save the poor Black kids” oooof but yes), Coe Booth, & Tochi Onyebuchi. Bought another copy for the library because our brand new copy walked and is hopefully living a good and well-read life somewhere!

This aptly-named collection of short stories provides a look into the varied experiences of several Black teenaged protagonists. It offers stories of joy, of sorrow, of the exciting, of the mundane, and of everything else in between.

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