Black Girl Power: 15 Stories Celebrating Black Girlhood

These 15 stories are a delight. They are about Black girls, and they are for everyone to enjoy.

Read about a student pastry witch taking a stand, a reluctant vampire doing things her way, a New Yorker moving from her beloved streets, and a science fair star meeting her idol.

Add to that a haunted dollhouse, a lesson about hairstyles, a memory of a larger-than-life brother, and much, much more, and you have a wonderful, genre-spanning collection to dip into time and time again. 

The US author Leah Johnson has edited this volume, and many stories have an American feel, but the various themes are universal: family, friends, school. There is a lot to relate to here, whether you have been to ‘middle school’ or played ice hockey yourself or not. Plus, some stories have a fantasy setting, which means anyone can picture themselves living there.

Some stories deal with anxiety, several with grief, a few with bullying – all themes relevant to young readers, sadly, and good for building empathy. But overall, this is a positive, joyful anthology of life-affirming stories.