In exchange for a bad debt, an Anglo-Dutch trader takes on Florens, a young slave girl, who feels abandoned by her slave mother and who searches for love--first from an older servant woman at her master's new home, and then from a handsome free blacksmith.

When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, "You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain't what you was supposed to be. So, from now on, you gon' be a boy." From this point forward, his life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events. Meanwhile, the Peace family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and...

Amara is hosting a potluck for friends on her farm, and her snacks won't be complete without pumpkins. She's searched and searched, but she's grown so many plants that she needs help finding them. What do we know about pumpkins? They're large, round, and orange--and, wait a minute, is that a pumpkin? No, that's an apple. Where, oh, where could those pumpkins be?

"When Mama Braids My Hair captures a young girl s experience of having her hair braided and the bond it creates with her mother. The tradition of African hair braiding is more than just a Sunday routine. Come join Nikki on an adventure as she is transformed into an Egyptian queen, a Nigerian goddess, a Zulu warrior, and a Maasai girl. While young girls throughout the African Diaspora can relate to getting their hair braided in intricate styles, it...

"Celeste knows she should be excited to spend two weeks at her grandparents' lake house with her brother, Owen, and their cousins Capri and Daisy, but she's not. Bugs, bad cell reception, and the dark waters of the lake... no thanks. On top of that, she just failed her swim test and hates being in the water-it's terrifying. But her grandparents are strong believers in their family knowing how to swim, especially having grown up during a time of segregation...

Gabriela is offered a dance opportunity she cannot pass up during her already busy sixth grade year, but she finds herself wishing she could work on her poetry instead and wonders if her dreams have changed.

Self-educated and brown-skinned, Cassie works full time in her grandmother's laundry in rural Mississippi. Illiterate and white, Judith falls for colored music and dreams of life as a big city radio star. These teenaged girls are half-sisters. And when they catch wind of their wayward father's inheritance coming down in Virginia, they hitch their hopes to a road trip together to claim what's rightly theirs.

Malika loves her new red shoes and wears them everywhere, but eventually she outgrows them, and her grandmother takes them to a second-hand shop--where they will become a special present for Amina (who fasted half the month of Ramadan) in Africa, who will enjoy her special red shoes every bit as much as Malika did.

"A love letter to and for Black girls everywhere, Black Girl Rising alchemizes the sorrow and strength of the past into the brilliant gold of the future, sweeping young readers of all backgrounds into a lyrical exploration of what it means to be Black, female, and glorious"--

Every Tuesday Lola and her mother visit their local library to return and check out books, attend story readings, and share a special treat.