City Summer, Country Summer by Kiese Laymon

Three Black boys spend one special summer exploring the Mississippi woods and woulds and coulds of sharing the kind of freeing friendship that is love. Watched over and given space to discover by Grandmama and Mama Lara, New York, Country, and Little C find camaraderie in their contrasts and all the unspoken things between them while playing games of Marco Polo in the thick garden and sledding on cardboard by the underpass. With text brimming with love by award-winning author Kiese Laymon and deeply evocative illustrations by Ashley Franklin, City Summer, Country Summer illuminates the tenuous and tender bonds of friendship Black boys forge with one another.

Are You a Friend of Dorothy? The True Story of an Imaginary Woman and the Real People She Helped by Kyle Lukoff

From Newbery Honor and Stonewall Book Award–winning author Kyle Lukoff and celebrated picture book illustrator Levi Hastings comes a picture book about how people found community in a time when they had to keep their true selves secret. “Are you a friend of Dorothy?”

In a time when the LGBTQ+ community was forced to hide in the shadows, a woman named Dorothy helped her people find each other in the dark and celebrate themselves in the light.

But who was Dorothy? Was she from the neighborhood, someone’s wife, mother, or sister? Was she that clever writer who threw parties where there were no rules about who you could and couldn’t dance with? Or was she a girl from Kansas who dreamed of leaving her black-and-white, small-town life and finding a vibrant, colorful world that loved her?

Dorothy might have been all these things — because Dorothy, as known by the post-WWII queer community, wasn’t real. Still, she helped a community find connection and care amidst adversity.

Coffee Shop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee

When Brenda’s internet goes out right before an important scholarship deadline, she stumbles right into Kat’s family’s coffee shop. Brenda is swept away by cool, confident Kat, who actually cares about Brenda’s 19-step plan to save the world through science. Meanwhile, Kat can’t stop thinking about Brenda, who is smart, passionate, and doesn’t seem to care that Kat is the prophesied Chosen One. The only problem? Kat and Brenda are from different universes. Like need-to-find-a-portal-to-go-on-a-second-date different universes. As their universes collide and things spiral out of control, can a girl who is determined to save the world find love with a girl determined to outrun her destiny?

Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin

An arrest for cocaine possession on the last day of a sweltering New York summer leaves Smith, a queer Black Stanford graduate, in a state of turmoil. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not.

It's just weeks after the death of his beloved roommate, Elle, the daughter of a famous soul singer, and he's still reeling from the tabloid spectacle, as well as lingering questions around how well he really knew his closest friend. He flees to his hometown of Atlanta, only to buckle under the weight of expectations from his family of doctors and lawyers, as well as their history in America. But when Smith returns to New York, it's not long before he begins to lose himself to his old life — drawn back into the city's underworld, where his search for answers may end up costing him his freedom and his future.

Smith goes on a dizzying journey through the nightlife circuit, anonymous recovery rooms, Atlanta's Black society set, police investigations and courtroom dramas, and a circle of friends coming of age in a new era. Great Black Hope is a propulsive, glittering story about what it means to exist between worlds, to be upwardly mobile yet spiraling downward, and how to find a way back to hope.

Accidentally on Purpose by Kristen Kish

Finding her own voice and staying true to her values are at the heart of Kish's engaging memoir and are the keys to her success as a chef and television personality. The Top Chef winner and host describes her path to a culinary career, from early, carefree childhood days as the adopted Korean-born daughter of a loving Michigan family to culinary school in Chicago through some rough patches in young adulthood.