It's Elementary

by Elise Bryant

Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, an exhausting job at a nonprofit, and the complexities of a multigenerational household. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee. Things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal's plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day. Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning, and has been MIA since the meeting.

A Legend in the Baking

by Jamie Wesley



August Hodges was supposed to be the silent partner in Sugar Blitz Cupcakes. Emphasis on silent. That is until his impromptu feminist rant about how women bakers are the backbone of the industry and baking cupcakes isn't a threat to masculinity goes viral, making him the hottest bachelor in town. With a new location in the works, August and his partners decide to capitalize on this perfect opportunity to help cement their place in the community. But the hiring of his best friend's younger sister, was as much of a shock as his new-found fame.

Social media manager Sloane Dell fell hard for her brother's best friend the moment she met him more than a decade ago, but that teenage infatuation cost her dearly. Still, she accepts her brother's request to revamp the bakery's social media presence to take advantage of August's newfound popularity, knowing it's the big break her fledgling career needs.

Something Kindred

by Ciera Burch

Jericka Walker had planned to spend the summer before senior year soaking up the sun with her best friend on the Jersey Shore. Instead she finds herself in Coldwater, Maryland, a small town with a dark and complicated past where her estranged grandmother lives--someone she knows only two things about: her name and the fact that she left Jericka's mother and uncle when they were children. But now Jericka's grandmother is dying, and her mother has dragged Jericka along to say goodbye. As Jericka feels the chilling pull of her family's past, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead.

Love Radio

by Ebony LaDelle

Prince Jones, a self-professed teen love doctor known for his radio segment on the local hip-hop station, believes he can get the bookish, anti-romance Dani Ford to fall in love with him in three dates.

Treasure Island

by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Zane is itching for an adventure that will take him away from his family's boarding house in Rockaway, Queens. So when he is entrusted with a real treasure map, leading to a spot somewhere in Manhattan, Zane wastes no time in riding the ferry over to the city to start the search with his friends Kiko and Jack and his dog, Hip-Hop. Through strange coincidence, they meet a man who is eager to help them find the treasure: John, a sailor who knows all about the buried history of Black New Yorkers of centuries past—and the gold that is hidden somewhere in those stories.

A Split Second

by Janae Marks

When Elise wakes up the morning after her birthday celebration, she's surprised to find herself in her bedroom. Last she can remember, she had fallen asleep next to her best friends at her slumber party in her basement, and it was October. But now she's alone, and her phone says it's April 8. Elise doesn't understand. How could she have woken up six months later? No one else is acting like anything strange has happened, yet Elise can't remember the last half year. To make matters worse, her friends refuse to talk to her and Elise doesn't know why. She also has no idea how she got signed up for photography club, or why her former best friend, Cora, is talking to her again. Is it a memory problem? Could it be magic?

Bros

Written by Carole Boston Weatherford

Illustrated by Reggie Brown

From sunrise to sunset, a group of young Black boys joyously spend the day together as they live their best lives freely in their community. ­With confidence and a touch of swag, these friends do everything with one another: build a time machine, tend to the community garden, roleplay in the park, read, take a group selfie, and play basketball.

Forever and Always

Written by Brittany J. Thurman

Illustrated by Shamar Knight Justice

This lyrical picture book centers around Olivia, who, worrying about her father while he's at work, anxiously awaits his return, knowing that when he gets home, the evening will be full of love and fun.