Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America
Ratings18
Average rating3.9
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.
Since this is an anthology, I'll also be rating the individual stories!!! As a whole I really, Really liked this!!!!! And I definitely plan on reading some more from certain authors in this!!!
Half A Moon by Renee Watson: 4 stars
Black Enough by Varian Johnson: 5 stars!!!
Warning: Color May Fade by Leah Henderson: 5 stars!!!
Black. Nerd. Problems. by Lamar Giles: 4 stars
Out Of The Silence by Kekla Magoon: 5 stars!!!
The Ingredients by Jason Reynolds: 4 stars
Oreo by Brandy Colbert: 5 stars!!!
Samson And The Delilahs by Tochi Onyebuchi: 5 stars!!!
Stop Playing by Liara Tamani: 2 stars, probably the story I liked the least out of all of them
Wild Horses, Wild Hearts by Jay Coles: 5 stars and probably my FAVORITE story out of all of them!!!
Whoa! by Rita Williams-Garcia: 4 stars
Gravity by Tracey Baptiste: 2 stars
The Trouble With Drowning by Dhonielle Clayton: 4 stars
Kissing Sarah Smart by Justina Ireland: 5 stars!!!
Hackathon Summers by Coe Booth: 4 stars
Into The Starlight by Nic Stone: 5 stars!!!
The (R)Evolution of Nigeria Jones: 5 stars!!!
I was sucked into many of the stories wishing they were full novel length not just a short story, but had a hard time with some of the other stories.
This is a great collection with a strong variety of voices and stories. I am extremely hung up on one particular story in which a Black girl is secretly obsessed with Friends (which, I get it, Friends is having a renaissance and all the teens are into it) even though it's a show about white people and her other Black friends don't get it. Sure, sure, but, BUT, she has a crush on ROSS?!??! Her favorite is ROSS?!?! IS ANYONE'S FAVORITE ROSS???? this is where I draw the line of believably!!!!
ahem but for more positive examples, I loved Renee Watson's story about a teen girl encountering her half-sister at summer camp and not JUST because I love all stories about summer camp, but I loved the initial prickliness of the relationship and the difference in economic class and appearance between the sisters and the way (spoiler?) they gradually overcome those differences. And Coe Booth's story about Black teen nerd love at Hackathons (which are like summer camp but for nerds)?
A great variety of stories here, will make it easy for readers to find new favorite authors to check out.
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!