Black by Popular Demand
Books by Black authors releasing each week!
August is here! We are taking you to Sunrise Books of Portland for the week. Get your books before school starts up!
Happy Reading!
Freedom Fire: Moko Magic: Carnival Chaos
Weirdness and wonders abound in this colorful celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture by the author of the beloved Jumbies series.
Twelve-year-old Misty and her mother have just moved from Trinidad to Brooklyn, New York, in time for the annual carnival celebrations over Labor Day weekend. Misty has plenty to deal with getting used to living with her cousins Aiden and Brooke in her new surroundings. On top of that, her mom is too busy trying to find a job and her aunts and uncles are too preoccupied with carnival preparations to pay any attention to her.
Then really strange things begin to happen. A ball of feathers in the basement turns into a creature that squeaks and rolls around. When Misty and her cousins eat pieces of mango anchar, flames shoot out of their mouths. Most disturbing of all, Misty begins to see visions of the future--scary visions that soon come true.
Misty discovers that she and her cousins come from a long line of mokos, people who have special powers meant to help them protect their community. Misty can see impending danger, Aiden can heal, and Brooke has crazy physical strength. The trio is just learning about their skills when Misty senses something watching her. And then each of the carnival events is disrupted by a different disaster. Some kind of evil force is clearly trying to stop the festivities. But why? And will moko magic be enough to save the day?
(Middle Grade)
Daydreamer
Charles' life is split between two worlds: one real and one fantasy. In the real world, he is a lonely, bullied kid who can't keep up with school when the letters refuse to stay still on the page, and is constantly in trouble for getting distracted. He lives with his mom in an apartment building, where Glory, the grumpy old superintendent, fills his head with stories about the Dream Folk.
In his fantasy world, the Sanctuary, Charles adventures with faeries and sprites and his two imaginary best friends. There, Charles's bullies become ogres, and Glory opens his arms wide to transform into a dragon. But when trolls move into Charles' apartment building and bring with them a terrible secret, the stories he has been told and the ones he brings to life grow more complicated. To protect everyone he cares about, Charles must harness his imagination in ways he never dreamed, in this unique story of the spaces and narratives we create for ourselves, and the ways in which fantasy and reality collide and blur.
(Middle Grade)
The Rich People Have Gone Away
Brooklyn, 2020. Theo Harper and his pregnant wife, Darla, head upstate to their summer cottage to wait out the lockdown. Not everyone in their upscale Park Slope building has this privilege: not Xavier, the teenager in the Cardi B T-shirt, nor Darla's best friend, Ruby, and her partner, Katsumi, who stay behind to save their Michelin-starred restaurant.
During an upstate hike on the aptly named Devil's Path, Theo divulges a long-held secret--and when Darla disappears after the ensuing argument, he finds himself the prime suspect. As Darla's and Theo's families and friends come together to search for her, with Ruby and Katsumi stepping in to broker peace, past and present collide with startling consequences.
Set against the pulse of an ever-changing city, The Rich People Have Gone Away connects the lives of ordinary New Yorkers to tell a powerful story of hope, love, and inequity in our times--while reminding us that no one leaves the past behind completely.
(Literary)
On a Move: Philadelphia's Notorious Bombing and a Native Son's Lifelong Battle for Justice
Before police dropped a bomb on a residential neighborhood on May 13, 1985, few people outside Philadelphia were aware that a Black-led civil liberties organization had taken root there. Founded in 1972 by a charismatic ideologue called John Africa, MOVE's mission was to protect all forms of life from systemic oppression. They drew their ideology from the Black Panther Party and pre-dated animal and environmental rights groups like PETA and Earth First. MOVE emerged in an era when Black Philadelphians suffered under devastating policies brought by the long, doomed war in Vietnam, Mayor Frank Rizzo's overtly racist police surveillance, and, eventually, President Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs. MOVE members lived together in a collection of West Philadelphia row houses and took the surname Africa out of admiration for the group's founder.
But in MOVE's lifestyle, city officials saw threats to their status quo. Their bombing of MOVE homes shocked the nation and made international news. Eleven people were killed, including five children. And the City of Brotherly Love became known as the City That Bombed Itself.
(Nonfiction)
The Empire Wars
Coa, who was born feral in the North Transatlantic wilds, has been captured. Now, Coa is subject to public humiliation and execution in a gruesome spectacle known as the Great Hunt.
If participators die in the Great Hunt, their entire families will be executed--in front of everyone. The nationalist regime known as the Allied Force will not rest until all foreigners are exterminated. Coa's best hope of survival might be Princess Ife--born of privilege but newly married into the authoritarian lineage.
Her riskier choice is an alliance with a gorgeous, cunning fellow participator, marked as a traitor to his militarized nation. Coa entangles herself with the captivating young man but soon finds he could be her ultimate downfall ...
(Fantasy)
The Lonely Below
Blythe Academy isn't a normal school. Eva can tell--there's something off, something wrong. She learns that fifty years ago part of the school collapsed, killing a classroom of students and their teacher. Things haven't been the same since.
Soon, Eva's having unnerving visions and terrifying run-ins with ghosts. She doesn't think the collapse was just a tragic accident. It was caused by a malevolent force, and that force is back and hungry for more. Will Eva be able to discover the truth of Blythe Academy and save lives . . . or will it be too late?
(Middle Grade Horror)
Eagle Rock: An Ashe Cayne Novel, Book 4
Billionaire Elliott Kantor, who ruled over a mammoth real estate portfolio in Chicago, was a creature of habit. His trainer came to his house three mornings every week for a five-thirty workout. By six-thirty he was in the car and his driver drove him down into the city where he'd get a shave and trim from his barber every morning, then head over to his offices on Wacker. He always ate breakfast at his desk, had two young assistants who tended to his every whim and demand, then spent all day in and out of meetings growing a business that had already made him one of the wealthiest men in the country.
There were few surprises in his world. Or so everyone thought, until Kantor died in his sleep at age 77, leaving behind a vast fortune and grieving wife, son, and five grandchildren.
When Simon Kantor enlists Ashe Cayne to explore his father's death, the probing private investigator learns there was plenty of "activities" Elliott participated in after hours, including a sex traffic ring. And as Ashe and readers will discover this is only the beginning, and as our hero dives deeper and deeper into Elliott's hidden world, this may be the end for the intrepid Mr. Cayne.
(Mystery)
