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Color Me Butterfly
Color Me Butterfly Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Domestic Abuse: A Generational Curse?This book spans a 60 year period in the lives of a family of strong African American women who survived domestic a...
The Talented Ripkins by Ladee Hubbard
The Talented Ripkins by Ladee Hubbard Brenda M. Greene Book Review Drawing from W.E.B. DuBois’s concept of the Talented Tenth, Hubbard’s debut award-winning The Talented Ribkins follows t...
Sweet Sorrel Stand
Sweet Sorrel Stand Pamela Shivdyal Book Review Teaching kids about money from an early age can help them learn healthy financial habits that will last a lifetime. Yolanda T. Marshall, shares her Cari...
Brown Boys Rule
Brown Boys Rule Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review While listening to a recent meditation session on the app Happier—one of my favorites—I was reminded of the importance of embracing wo...
Street Journeys
Street Journeys Kam Williams street-jouneys-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Street Journeys (2011) Director: Tracy Christian Kenya, 2011, Duration 58 min., English & Swahili In the he...
Zion and Zara Stories: The Big Bike Race
Zion and Zara Stories: The Big Bike Race Amanda Robinson Book Review Good children’s books are hard to come by. Many of them lack morals for children to learn from or educational content to gro...
Turn the Page and You Don’t Stop: Sharing Successful Chapters in Our Lives with Youth
Turn the Page and You Don’t Stop: Sharing Successful Chapters in Our Lives with Youth Kam Williams Book Review “Why read? Reading isn’t just for sissies, or nerds or geeks. Research...
Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes Troy Johnson Book Review Here, Cheryl Willis Hudson co-author of: Bright Eyes, Brown Skin, helps young children see the beauty of their physical characteristics. Bright eyes, brown sk...
I am Barack Obama
I am Barack Obama Kam Williams Book Review "This book tells a story of how a child can change the world. It creates a space where children can experience the extraordinary life of P...
Breaking the Code of Silence
Breaking the Code of Silence Kam Williams Book Review ’I felt even more secure with this man than I had ever felt in an previous relationship. Even though h...
Sugar of the Crop
Sugar of the Crop Kam Williams Book Review Everyone I interviewed for this book is now dead” Before I started the search, the one person I knew who was a granddaughter of a ...
Secrets and Lies
Secrets and Lies Idrissa Uqdah Book Review For Better or For Worse Rhonda McKnight's debut novel, Secrets and Lies is about a married couple who despite their comfortable financial situation a...
Children of the Waters
Children of the Waters Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Blood Ties, Family Lies Carleen Brice has returned to the literary scene with her second novel, Children of the Waters and she’s ...
Because of Race
Because of Race Kam Williams Book Review ’Today, racial inequality of opportunity and outcome in education is still the result of past generations of explicit policy decree...
Mimi’s Village and How Basic Health Care Transformed It
Mimi’s Village and How Basic Health Care Transformed It Kam Williams Book Review “Mimi’s fictional village is like thousands of real villages in the developing world, where health care...
My Holy Bible for African-American Children King James Version
My Holy Bible for African-American Children King James Version Kam Williams Book Review "If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’l...
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome Kam Williams Book Review ’When African-Americans accept the deprecating accounts and images portrayed by the media, literature, music and the arts as a true ...
The Adventures of Sasha & Malia at the White House
The Adventures of Sasha & Malia at the White House Kam Williams Book Review "[This] story came to me in a dream one night not long after the inauguration of President Barack Obama… I d...
Radical: Fighting to Put Students First
Radical: Fighting to Put Students First Kam Williams Book Review “Why am I a radical? Because in order to live up to our promise as a nation, we cannot rest until we provide a quality educat...
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters Kam Williams Book Review In this tender, beautiful letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaki...
Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation
Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation Adam Henig Book Review In Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation, Robert J. Norrell, professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxvi...
America The Black Point of View
America The Black Point of View Kam Williams Book Review “I come from a place that is so invisible that you can hardly see me. Yet, I am despised, hated and feared more than anyone or anythin...
A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks
A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks Neoma Nwasike Book Review Gwendolyn Brooks was a very influential African American poet who became the first Black writer to win a Pulitzer Prize award (Poetry). In the ch...
Beyond Glory
Beyond Glory Thumper Book Review Warning! I’ve been cleaning up my library again-meaning I’m about to review an old book. I have two walls full of bookshelves, whose...
The People Could Fly
The People Could Fly Kam Williams Book Review "The People Could Fly is one of the most extraordinary, moving tales in black folklore… [It] is a detailed fantasy of suffering, of magi...
The Motherhood Diaries: A Humorous Look at Motherhood in the New Millennium
The Motherhood Diaries: A Humorous Look at Motherhood in the New Millennium Kam Williams Book Review “Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve kept a diary… Instead of writing out al...
A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Tiddy-Boom
A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Tiddy-Boom Robert Fleming Book Review So many books written by gay, Black men do not explore the inner emotional terrain of their character. That is why this vast, dram...
black misery
black misery Troy Johnson Book Review Misery is when you heardon the radio that the neighborhoodyou live in is a slum butyou always thought it was home” black misery is a pictur...
An Affirmation Nite Baby Nite
An Affirmation Nite Baby Nite Sandra W. Headen Book Review An Affirmation: Nite Baby Nite is a gift to parents, grandparents, and everyone who loves children and picture books. Even more, it is a tre...
There Are Dinosaurs in the Library!
There Are Dinosaurs in the Library! Judy Allen Dodson Book Review Let’s take trip to the library with Mrs. Baker and her third-grade class. As we all know the library is a space filled with boo...
Virginia Hamilton: Speeches
Virginia Hamilton: Speeches Kam Williams Book Review ’In the 35 years between the publication of her first book and her death in 2002, Virginia Hamilton earned a place of honor in the p...
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review This year, we will celebrate the centennial of the birth of prominent writer, civil rights activist, and intellectual James Baldwin. Born in Ha...
John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism
John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism Thumper Book Review I was looking forward to reading Keith Gilyard’s biography, John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism. J...
Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History and Culture
Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History and Culture Robert Fleming Book Review Dr. Burnett Kwadwo Gallman’s Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History And Culture, is a...
Sins of the Mother
Sins of the Mother Idrissa Uqdah Book Review KARMA???? Victoria Christopher Murray is the best selling author of several contemporary novels that touch on hot topics that church people aren...
Chasing The 400
Chasing The 400 Idrissa Uqdah Book Review The African American Caste System When you think about the caste system you think of the poor in countries like India where there is a division of society ...
Judge Not!
Judge Not! Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Waiting For Justice To Prevail Audrey Forrest Carter has penned a great sequel to her well-received debut novel, The Wages of Sin. In Judge Not! readers f...
Elizabeth’s Song
Elizabeth’s Song Linda Watkins Book Review I am aware that surprises come in many forms, and in many ways. And I was glad when I discovered Elizabeth’s Song, by author, Michael Wenberg, and il...
The New Brownies’ Book
The New Brownies’ Book Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review In the November 1910 premier issue of The Crisis, the official journal of the NAACP, historian, scholar, civil rights activist, sociologist, an...
On The Edge of a Leaf
On The Edge of a Leaf Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review In his latest children’s picture book, At the Edge of a Leaf, author and poet Vincent L. Johnson draws from his love of gardening, nature,...
True Love
True Love Kam Williams Book Review “This is a story of love. It started when love was lost and I felt as if my world had fallen apart. What followed was a transformative journey, through t...
Blues In The Wind
Blues In The Wind Thumper Book Review Whitney LeBlanc makes his literary debut with an impressive, multidimensional, highly entertaining family drama, written in the glory of the blues. I threw ope...
A Flag for Juneteenth
A Flag for Juneteenth Mel Hopkins Book Review Choose Freedom In A Flag for Juneteenth, Kim Taylor weaves a tale of freedom and how to achieve it even when your world is in tatters. And while this...
The Known World
The Known World Thumper Book Review As is becoming an unbreakable and pleasurable yearly excursion, I attended the 2003 Book Expo America (BEA) in Los Angeles. I love the BEA. The convention is all...
Gift of Truth
Gift of Truth Michelle Paynter Book Review There are literary craftsmen who spend a lifetime writing in one particular genre, and there are others who possess a creative and literary zeal, which ...
Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou
Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou Kam Williams Book Review “‘Words mean more than what is set down on paper,’ Maya Angelou wrote in her groundbreaking m...
The Miseducation of Obi Ifeanyi by Chinedu Achebe
The Miseducation of Obi Ifeanyi by Chinedu Achebe Robert Fleming Book Review Some of the world’s finest fiction has been written by Nigerians. Let’s look at the writers from that area in...
Granddaddy
Granddaddy Carol Taylor Book Review Granddaddy is a poignant literary novel, told mostly in a stream of conscious narrative, that traces a family’s emotional journey through their memories of t...
Who Would Have Thunk It! The First Adventures of the Fraser Foster Kids
Who Would Have Thunk It! The First Adventures of the Fraser Foster Kids Kam Williams Book Review “Our story began a very long time ago when we were little kids with no place to live. Our moth...
The Black Church: Where Women Pray and Men Prey
The Black Church: Where Women Pray and Men Prey Kam Williams Book Review “If you are a single black woman regularly attending church and tithing, or you are a woman with children that accomp...
That Mean Old Yesterday: A Memoir
That Mean Old Yesterday: A Memoir Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Paint a picture of a little brown girl who walks in fear and sadness. Her dark story is told in Stacey Patton’s memoir, Tha...
Gift Of Faith
Gift Of Faith Art Nixon Book Review The idea of faith, is a common reference for most of us and yet it is an idea that many of us have not had the experience to really know its meaning intimately...
Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God
Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God Kam Williams Book Review “Why is it becoming increasingly acceptable to kill unarmed black children? Why are they so easily perceived as...
Wench
Wench Thumper Book Review I had a feeling that even though we are educated enough in the institution of slavery, there are still aspects that take me by surprise. Dolen Perkins-Valdez debut...
Go Cook Something: A Cooking Survival Guide for Active Independent Children
Go Cook Something: A Cooking Survival Guide for Active Independent Children Kam Williams Book Review "My Mom and Dad separated when I was still in Underoos, so I’ve had to help Mom a lot&hell...
Hope on a Tightrope
Hope on a Tightrope Kam Williams Book Review ’We are now in one of the most truly prophetic moments in the history of America. The poor and very poor are sleeping with self-de...
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to "The Blind Side" and Beyond
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to "The Blind Side" and Beyond Kam Williams Book Review "I didn’t write this book just to revisit The Blind Side… I want to help sepa...
I’m African and Proud
I’m African and Proud Kam Williams Book Review ’I’ve taught in New Jersey schools for 32 years, 21 as a kindergarten teacher. I’ve seen so many children of African descent who ha...
Khalil’s Way
Khalil’s Way Kam Williams Book Review “Do you have nightmares about going to school? Do you hate going to school because you know you’ll be teased, or shoved or even beaten up? If yes, y...
Nubiah
Nubiah Kam Williams Book Review ’Escape back to a time and place when Kings and Queens ruled powerful empires’ Welcome to Nubiah, an informative children’s bedtime...
Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve (Even If It Means Picking a Figh
Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve (Even If It Means Picking a Figh Kam Williams Book Review "I’m often referred to as a ‘tough love’ principal&hell...
Different and the Same
Different and the Same AALBC Staff Writer Book Review In an age where there is a proliferation of emotional and physical Black trauma, that is videotaped and viewed widely online, we should strive to...
My Hair Can
My Hair Can Shaundale Rénā Book Review Profoundly inspiring, My Hair Can is a picture book full of wit and charm. Each page is vibrant and affirms joy and positivity for little Black boys and girls a...
Freedom at Dawn: Robert Smalls’s Voyage Out of Slavery
Freedom at Dawn: Robert Smalls’s Voyage Out of Slavery Richard Murray Book Review Frederick Douglass once said, “The American Government and the American Constitution are spoken of in a manner ...
Child
Child Kam Williams Book Review “In this wise and funny memoir, Ylonda Gault Caviness describes her journey to the realization that all the parenting advice she was obsessively devouring, as...
Leaving Atlanta
Leaving Atlanta Thumper Book Review Tayari Jones enters the literary scene with Leaving Atlanta, a novel that takes place in 1979 Atlanta, Georgia during what came to be known as the Atlanta Child ...
Saving Our Daughters
Saving Our Daughters Kam Williams Book Review ’Where do we begin with this delicate subject of color and racism within a race — I call it intra-racial profil...
Strongholds
Strongholds Idrissa Uqdah Book Review The second book in the Blessed Trinity trilogy by best selling Christian fiction author, Vanessa Davis Griggs is a story full of the challenges that c...
Uncle Yah Yah Parts I & II 21st Century Man of Wisdom
Uncle Yah Yah Parts I & II 21st Century Man of Wisdom Alvin Romer Book Review Author Al Dickens gives us his unique brand of wisdom told as by Uncle Yah Yah, a storyteller and wise sage spewing amus...
Men We Reaped: A Memoir
Men We Reaped: A Memoir Robert Fleming Book Review National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward, author of two previous acclaimed novels, Where The Line Bleeds and Salvage The Bones, closely examines...
Sincerely Speaking Spiritually
Sincerely Speaking Spiritually Robert Fleming Book Review Like many successful self-help books, Sincerely Speaking Spiritually, celebrates verses of faith and inspiration in the Holy Word. Its author...
Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in Her Life and Literature
Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in Her Life and Literature Robert Fleming Book Review When literary icon Toni Morrison died in August, 2019, world literature lost a r...
The Felix Women Series
The Felix Women Series Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Acceptance Not Required: Felix Women IV Click to order via Amazon Print Length: 58 pages (October 10, 2014) This author, Angelia Vernon M...
You Made Me Love You
You Made Me Love You Robert Fleming Book Review Like Ishmael Reed, Clarence Major, and other legendary African-American male writers of their generation, John Edgar Wideman, at eighty, is nearing the...
Butter: Novellas, Stories, and Fragments
Butter: Novellas, Stories, and Fragments Robert Fleming Book Review Recently, I received a letter from lit legend Gayl Jones, saying that she wasn’t writing anymore. Discovered by iconic editor...
Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat
Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat Julianne Malveaux Book Review I don’t often write about comedians, but the recent passing of my friend Dick Gregory reminded me of the very important role t...
Bounce
Bounce Idrissa Uqdah Book Review It’s All About The Trust!Author K.M. Jackson has a real winner in Bounce, a combination contemporary women’s fiction/romance novel that is both ente...
12 Years a Slave
12 Years a Slave Kam Williams 12-years-a-slave-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Chiwetel Ejiofor Stars in Adaptation of Solomon Northup’s Memoir In Theaters: Oct 18, 2013 Limited November 1,...
Never Say Never
Never Say Never Idrissa Uqdah Book Review In this drama -filled novel, Victoria Christopher Murray gives her readers a shocking story that is edgy Christian fiction, at it’s best. Miriam has ...
I Am Jackie Robinson
I Am Jackie Robinson Kam Williams Book Review An AALBC.com Bestselling Book May/June 2015 Book Reviewed by Kam Williams “Jackie Robinson learned to be brave when he was very young. He gre...
The Conversation
The Conversation Kam Williams Book Review ’One of the things I’ve heard a lot from young brothers and sisters during my recent travels is ’I want a woman like Mich...
Kevin and His Dad
Kevin and His Dad Kam Williams Book Review ’What could be better for a young boy than to spend a whole day with his father! With mom away on a Saturday, that’s exa...
Gotta Keep On Tryin'
Gotta Keep On Tryin' Idrissa Uqdah Book Review In the sequel to the novel, Tryin’ To Sleep In The Bed You Made, life-long friends Gayle Saunders and Patricia (Pat) Reid are together ...
Seventh Child
Seventh Child Thumper Book Review Seventh Child: A Family Memoir of Malcolm X is a memoir told by his nephew, Rodnell P. Collins and his mother, Ella Little Collins. Seventh Child is a nice, factual,...
The Roots of Rap
The Roots of Rap Neoma Nwasike Book Review Hip-Hop is a culture that has spanned generations and has become worldwide. It found its humble beginnings in some of the roughest trenches, deep in the Bro...
Ain’t But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story
Ain’t But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story Robert Fleming Book Review Jazz is dead! If you believe that mess, you must not listen to radio or read any of the mainstream media. Howeve...
In Spite of the Consequences: Prison Letters on Exoneration, Abolition, and Freedom
In Spite of the Consequences: Prison Letters on Exoneration, Abolition, and Freedom Robert Fleming Book Review If you were politically conscious decades ago, you would have read the prison chronicles...
Just Wanna Testify
Just Wanna Testify Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Vamping The Vamps… Just Wanna Testify by the mega-talented author, Pearl Cleage was met with mixed reviews when it was first released. Many of...
Miss Chloe: A Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison
Miss Chloe: A Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison Robert Fleming Book Review There is so much commercial tripe out there on our bookshelves, but this book is very worthy: Miss Chloe: A Memoir Of A...
The Disilgold Way
The Disilgold Way Kam Williams Book Review "After starting a business proposal that took over 10 years, as long as it took to finally self publish my first book, I knew that I needed to ...
Read Until You Understand
Read Until You Understand Robert Fleming Book Review With a solid array of books to her credit, Farah Jasmine Griffin has possibly written one of the artistic highlights in the national book marketpl...
Behind those Books (press release)
Behind those Books (press release) Troy Johnson images/behindthosebooks.jpg Film Review Behind Those Books: A Thought Provoking Documentary Tackling Societal Ills Through Literature Behind Th...
Blessings
Blessings Thumper Book Review Blessing is the third novel written by the author of Lil Mama Rules and Caught Up In The Rapture, Sheneska Jackson. Blessings is the story of four women who work in a ...
Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights
Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights Kam Williams Book Review “Whiteness… derives power from its status as an unmarked category… [It] nev...
The Black Clergy’s Misguided Worship Leadership
The Black Clergy’s Misguided Worship Leadership Robert Fleming Book Review With this defiant publication, The Black Clergy’s Misguided Worship Leadership, Dr. Christopher C. Bell, Jr....
Deliver Me From Evil
Deliver Me From Evil Idrissa Uqdah Book Review The new drama-filled novel by author Mary Monroe starts off a bit slow but by the time you get to know the main character, Christine Thurman, you ...
Goony Goo-Goo and Ga-Ga Too!
Goony Goo-Goo and Ga-Ga Too! Kelly Starling Lyons Book Review Drawing inspiration from her own children, author Kia Morgan Smith has written a fun picture book about the trials and triumphs of ...
Thank You, Omu!
Thank You, Omu! Neoma Nwasike Book Review How important is community to you? Is it at the epicenter of your heart, and do the people who make up your unique and wonderful community, allow you to thri...
The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women
The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women Robert Fleming Book Review Identity and gender have always fascinated Catherine McKinley, one of the fewer 15,000 mixed-race child...
Gathering Blossoms Under Fire
Gathering Blossoms Under Fire Robert Fleming Book Review Nobody will find the controversial writer, Alice Walker neutral, because of her fierce, unorthodox views. As an award-winning novelist, essayi...