Brown Skin Girl – Super Specific Book Recommendations

Hi everyone! This week’s post is coming late because it’s been a busy work week.

So, I’ve had the idea to write this very specific recommendation post for such a long time, but it never felt like I’d read enough books with dark-skinned black girls to do it justice. I still don’t think I’ve read enough books, but I wanted to put it out there because representation of dark-skinned black girls in literature and media is important to me. Specifically, non-trauma related representation.

If you’ve been following me for a while then you’ve probably seen my tweets or my blog post about colorism and the lack of representation for dark skin black girls. I want to read cute rom coms with dark-skinned black girls falling in love. I want to read fantasy books with dark-skinned black girls saving kingdoms, going on portal adventures, and everything in between. I want to see dark-skinned black girls happy! And I also want this type of representation in movies and TV shows.

The books on this list are stories with dark-skinned black girls (or women) as the main character and trauma isn’t the main subject. I hope you enjoy it and you add a few of these to your TBRs. Covers/titles are linked to Goodreads.

By the way, I plan to turn super specific book recommendations into a blog series. I have more ideas.

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Books Recommended by Me

The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true? 

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Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

lice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting–working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she’s asexual). Alice is done with dating–no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.

But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).

When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood.

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Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.

Now we rise.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

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Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite

When a school presentation goes very wrong, Alaine Beauparlant finds herself suspended, shipped off to Haiti and writing the report of a lifetime…

You might ask the obvious question: What do I, a seventeen-year-old Haitian American from Miami with way too little life experience, have to say about anything?

Actually, a lot.

Thanks to “the incident” (don’t ask), I’m spending the next two months doing what my school is calling a “spring volunteer immersion project.” It’s definitely no vacation. I’m toiling away under the ever-watchful eyes of Tati Estelle at her new nonprofit. And my lean-in queen of a mother is even here to make sure I do things right. Or she might just be lying low to dodge the media sharks after a much more public incident of her own…and to hide a rather devastating secret.

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RECOMMENDED BY FRIENDS

As I mentioned, I don’t think I’ve read enough books for this post. However, I didn’t want that to limit this list so I turned to some friends for help. Please make sure to check out their platforms because this post would still be sitting in my drafts without their help.

Recommended by Lynell – @weekendreader_

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Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America Edited by Ibi Zoboi
A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole
Sleepless by Sarah Vaughn

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Recommended by Stacie – @the_next_book

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The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Wild Seed (Patternist series) by Octavia Butler
A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

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Recommended by Bee @BeeWitchedBooks

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Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

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The title for the post is inspired by Brown Skin Girl by Blue Ivy, SAINt JHN, Beyonce and WizKid

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Have you read any of these books? Do you have any recommendations with dark-skinned black women/girls? Let me know in the comments!