June is Caribbean-American Heritage Month! This is a time to celebrate the accomplishments of Americans with heritage from one of the over 30 Caribbean island nations. Here are some books for teens and adults written by Caribbean-American authors.
Caribbean-American Books for Young Adult Readers
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Clap when you land
by Elizabeth Acevedo Sixteen-year-olds Camino Rios, of the Dominican Republic, and Yahaira Rios, of New York City, are devastated to learn of their father's death in a plane crash and stunned to learn of each other's existence. A novel in verse told in two voices. |
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Home home
by Lisa Allen-Agostini Relocated against her will from Trinidad to Canada when she is hospitalized for depression, a homesick teen struggles through cultural adjustments before discovering the healing potential of her family’s unconditional love, new friends and a hopeful future. |
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Felix ever after
by Kacen Callender Worrying that his combination of such marginalizing qualities as being Black, queer and trans are too impossible to allow happiness, Felix turns vengeful in the face of transphobic hate messages before finding himself in a quasi-love triangle. |
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Untwine : a novel
by Edwidge Danticat Waking up in the hospital seriously injured, Giselle reflects on her past choices to evaluate how her friends, her family, and especially her identical twin have defined her existence. |
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Where the rhythm takes you
by Sarah Dass Presents a romantic, mesmerizing story of first love and second chances, all to the tunes of sweet soca music. |
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Lion Island : Cuba's warrior of words
by Margarita Engle A novel in verse by the Newbery Honor-winning author of The Surrender Tree traces the story of Antonio Chuffat, a young man of African, Chinese and Cuban descent who became a champion of civil rights during Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. |
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Your corner dark
by Desmond Hall A teen on the brink of winning the heart of his crush and accepting a scholarship that will help him escape poverty in Jamaica is instead forced to join his uncle’s gang to pay for medical expenses in the aftermath of his father’s shooting. |
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Grown
by Tiffany D. Jackson When legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots Enchanted Jones at an audition, her dreams of being a famous singer take flight. Until Enchanted wakes up with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night. Who killed Korey Fields? Before there was a dead body, Enchanted's dreams had turned into a nightmare. Because behind Korey's charm and star power was a controlling dark side. Now he's dead, the police are at the door, and all signs point to Enchanted. |
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Facing the sun
by Janice Lynn Mather Weighing a terrible choice, four girls—including the daughter of a cancer patient, a talented dancer from a broken home, a rule-breaking poet and an oppressed artist—team up when a hotel developer purchases their beloved Caribbean beach. |
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One of the good ones
by Maika Moulite When teen social activist and history buff Kezi Smith is killed under mysterious circumstances after attending a social justice rally, her devastated sister Happi and their family are left reeling in the aftermath. As Kezi becomes another immortalized victim in the fight against police brutality, Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered. |
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Never look back
by Lilliam Rivera In an Own Voices retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, a girl moves to the Bronx after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina and bonds with a talented bachata singer before their relationship is tested by the demons of the past. |
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Instructions for dancing
by Nicola Yoon Experiencing visions of heartbreak and trying to understand why this is happening, Evie signs up for lessons at a dance studio, where she falls for her dance partner, forcing her to question all she thought she knew about life and love. |
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Punching the air
by Ibi Aanu Zoboi and Yusef Salaam The award-winning author of American Street and the prison reform activist of the Exonerated Five trace the story of a young artist and poet whose prospects at a diverse art school are threatened by a racially biased system and a tragic altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood. |
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Black enough : stories of being young & black in America
by Ibi Zoboi Edited by the National Book Award finalist and featuring contributions by a prestigious group of best-selling, award-winning and emerging African American young-adult authors, a timely literary collection shares modern insights into what it is like to be young and black in today's America. |
Caribbean-American Books for Adult Readers
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Afterlife
by Julia Alvarez A literature professor tries to rediscover who she is after the sudden death of her husband, even as a series of family and political jolts force her to ask what we owe those in crisis in our families, biological or otherwise. |
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How to love a Jamaican : stories
by Alexia Arthurs A debut collection by an award-winning writer is set in Jamaica, New York City, and a Midwestern university, where multicultural main characters and their families navigate evolving senses of race, racism, family and tradition. |
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These ghosts are family : a novel
by Maisy Card A man on his deathbed reveals that he stole another man’s identity decades earlier, traces the family’s history from colonial Jamaica to present-day Harlem and reconnects with the firstborn daughter he never knew. |
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Slave old man
by Patrick Chamoiseau Making a daring escape from a Martinique plantation, an elderly slave is chased by his master and a fearsome hound through a lush rain forest where the slave's flight to freedom and the sinister but exhilarating aspects of nature transform the perspectives and senses of both pursued and pursuer. By the award-winning author of Texaco. |
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What's mine and yours : a novel
by Naima Coster Integrated into a predominantly white high school, an anxious young Black student and a half-Latina whose mother would have her pass as white join a bridge-building school play that shapes the trajectory of their adult lives. |
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Dominicana
by Angie Cruz The award-winning author of Soledad draws on her mother’s story in a tale set in a turbulent 1960s Dominican Republic, where a young teen agrees to marry a man twice her age to help her family’s immigration to America. |
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Everything inside : stories
by Edwidge Danticat A single-volume collection of short stories by the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Brother, I’m Dying is set in such locales as Miami, Port-au-Prince and the Caribbean and poignantly explores the forces that unite and divide. |
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Patsy : a novel
by Nicole Dennis-Benn Receiving her long-coveted visa to America, Patsy leaves behind her family in Jamaica only to discover that life as an undocumented immigrant is not what her best friend had described. By the award-winning author of Here Comes the Sun. |
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Here in Berlin : a novel
by Cristina García An unnamed visitor travels to wartime Berlin, where she learns about the city through the things she sees and the disparate people she meets. |
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Ayiti
by Roxane Gay Released for the first time to mainstream readers, a debut story collection by the award-winning author of An Untamed State is a poignant exploration of the Haitian diaspora experience and is complemented by several new stories. |
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The star side of Bird Hill
by Naomi A Jackson Suddenly sent from their home in Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados after their mother can no longer care for them, sisters Phaedra and Dionne spend the summer of 1989 living with their grandmother Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah. |
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A brief history of seven killings
by Marlon James A tale inspired by the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley spans decades and continents to explore the experiences of journalists, drug dealers, killers and ghosts against a backdrop of period social and political turmoil. By the award-winning author of The Book of Night Women. |
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See now then
by Jamaica Kincaid In this beautifully haunting novel about marriage and family from the acclaimed author of Autobiography of My Mother, a mother and father and their two children, living in a small village in New England, move, in their own minds, between the present, the past and the future. |
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One year of ugly : a novel
by Caroline Mackenzie Pursuing an illegal life in Trinidad after fleeing a crumbling home in Venezuela, Yola is targeted by a criminal thug during a tumultuous year that is complicated by her attraction to a dangerous man. |
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In the Heights : finding home
by Lin-Manuel Miranda Gives readers an inside look at In the Heights, a breakout Broadway debut, soon to be a Hollywood blockbuster. |
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The book of lost saints
by Daniel Jose Older Visited by an ancestral spirit who would have him unearth family secrets from the Cuban Revolution, a young Cuban-American embarks on an investigation marked by ghostly helpers, a new love, a murderous gangster and changes in his sense of identity. |
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Love after love : a novel
by Ingrid Persaud An award-winning Trinidadian author offers a novel that looks at a complicated marriage, an unconventional family and the shocking secrets that unite them. |
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Conquistadora : a novel
by Esmeralda Santiago Drawn to the exotic island of Puerto Rico by the diaries of an ancestor who traveled there with Ponce de León, Ana Cubillas becomes involved with enamored twin brothers Ramón and Inocente before convincing them to claim a sugar plantation they have inherited. By the author of Almost a Woman. |
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San Juan noir
by Mayra Santos-Febres Presents a collection of sinister stories set in and around San Juan, Puerto Rico, featuring contributions by such authors as Charlie Vázquez, Mayra Santos-Febres, and Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro. |
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The lesson : a novel
by Cadwell Turnbull The people of the US Virgin Islands coexist with the Ynaa, a race of super-advanced aliens on a research mission they will not fully disclose, until the death of a young boy plunges three families into an inevitable conflict that will touch everyone and teach a terrible lesson. |
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Land of love and drowning
by Tiphanie Yanique Chronicles the families of three siblings who survived a shipwreck off the Virgin Islands in 1916 and raised three generations on the islands, adapting to the unique language, rhythm, and magic of island life over sixty years. |