AkooBooks Audio: Black Voices on YALSA 2020 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults

With the Fire on High

By: Elizabeth Acevedo
Narrated by: Elizabeth Acevedo
Length: 7 hours 26 minutes

“This was a great listen. Emoni, a single teen mom, has so much on her plate and has maturity beyond her years. She’s realistic and responsible and navigates high school, parenting, college decisions and a budding love interest. She’s becoming a talented chef and her feelings are expressed in her food. The author narrates and she had me hooked... Read more

The Things She's Seen

By: Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Narrated by: Miranda Tapsell
Length: 4 hours 28 minutes

This brilliantly written thriller explores the lives--and deaths--of two girls, and what they will do to win justice. Sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year!

Nothing's been the same for Beth Teller since the day she died.

Her dad is drowning in grief. He's also the only one who has been able to see and hear her since the... Read more

Spin

By: Lamar Giles
Length: 10 hours 49 minutes

“I absolutely loved this one! Very Veronica Mars meets IQ. I cannot recommend the audiobook enough- the three narrators were really wonderful, and had me glued to phone, listening until the very end. I already adore Lamar Giles, and so glad that he's a Virginia author, and Spin was everything I loved (murder, mystery, teen sleuths) and more! I... Read more

Notes from a Young Black Chef (Adapted for Young Adults)

By: Kwame Onwuachi & Joshua David Stein
Narrated by: Malik Rashad
Length: 6 hours 28 minutes

This inspiring memoir, now adapted for young adults, chronicles Top Chef star and Forbes and Zagat 30 Under 30 phenom Kwame Onwuachi's incredible and odds-defying fame in the food world after a tough childhood in the Bronx and Nigeria.

Food was Kwame Onwuachi's first great love. He connected to cooking via his mother, in the family's modest Bronx... Read more

On the Come Up

By: Angie Thomas
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Don't miss this audiobook, Audible's Young Adult Audiobook of the Year and an Audie Award finalist!The YA love letter to hip-hop—streaming on Paramount+ September 23, 2022! Starring Sanaa Lathan (in her directorial debut), Jamila C. Gray, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Lil Yachty, Method Man, Mike Epps, GaTa (Davionte Ganter), Miles... Read more

Let Me Hear a Rhyme

By: Tiffany D. Jackson
Narrated by: Korey Jackson, Nile Bullock, Adenrele Ojo & Adam Lazarre-White
Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

“I listened to this book on audio during my commute & read chapters while at home and enjoyed it in BOTH formats. The story of 3 friends trying to get a record deal for their murdered best friend & brother was strained in parts but the desire to see the outcome & my enjoyment of the characters carried me through. Read more

How Long 'til Black Future Month?

Stories

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Shayna Small, Gail Nelson-Holgate, Robin Eller, Ron Butler, Kevin Stillwell, Je Nie Fleming & Jeanette Illidge
Length: 14 hours 10 minutes

Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories.

"Marvelous and wide-ranging." -- Los Angeles... Read more

Black Enough

By: Ibi Zoboi, Tracey Baptiste, Coleen Booth, Dhonielle Clayton, Brandy Colbert, Jay Coles, Lamar Giles, Leah Henderson, Justina Ireland, Varian Johnson, Kekla Magoon, Tochi Onyebuchi, Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Liara Tamani, Renée Watson & Rita Williams-Garcia
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin & Ron Butler
Length: 11 hours 14 minutes

Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today—Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America. A selection of the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List.Black is...sisters... Read more

Becoming

By: Michelle Obama
Narrated by: Michelle Obama
Length: 19 hours 1 minute

“I adore our former president and I miss him. Yet I cannot help but be ecstatic that Michelle is coming out with a book about her own life so that I can learn more about this powerful, intelligent, and singularly awesome woman. Barack would be the first to say that his wife is a superstar, and I can’t wait to get my hands on Becoming to read... Read more

Akata Warrior

Nsibidi Scripts: Book #2

By: Nnedi Okorafor
Narrated by: Yetide Badaki
Length: 12 hours 42 minutes

A year ago, Sunny Nwazue, an American-born girl Nigerian girl, was inducted into the secret Leopard Society. As she began to develop her magical powers, Sunny learned that she had been chosen to lead a dangerous mission to avert an apocalypse, brought about by the terrifying masquerade, Ekwensu. Now, stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny is... Read more