31 results for “by Ajuan Mance”

Not finding what you're looking for? Check out our shop on bookshop.org to order and still support us ♥

Availability

Price

$
–
$

More filters

  • Living While Black: Portraits of Everyday Resistance

    by Ajuan Mance

    $22.95
    In homage to the radical power of art, Living While Black celebrates the small acts of resistance that comprise the daily lives of Black folks by presenting them in a series of vivid illustrations.

    Laughing. Grieving. Being a kid. Even the purest expression of pleasure, the most human display of sorrow, or the simplest delight of childhood is an act of resistance if you happen to be Black. This immersive hardcover book features forty defiantly joyful illustrations by artist and educator Ajuan Mance, each artwork depicting a person of African descent going about their everyday business. Begun as Mance's personal response to the groundswell of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Living While Black denounces the excessive surveillance, harassment, and violence aimed at Black folks engaged in the activities of everyday life—and celebrates the courage and resilience of the Black community. Fittingly, the book also features a foreword from Alicia Garza, BLM founder and principal at the Black Futures Lab. Mance's thoughtful meditation on what it's like to be Black in America makes a wonderful tool for teachers, students, activists, and parents navigating conversations about racism and resistance.

    POWERFUL MESSAGE: In the contrast between the colorful illustrations and the weighty subject matter, a powerful message emerges: No matter how strong the forces of oppression, Black people will persist in striving for justice, equality, and joy. The book itself is also a reminder that there are many ways to be an activist—from marching for what you believe in, to spreading a message with your art.

    VIBRANT ARTWORK: Bright colors, bold shapes, vivid patterns—Ajuan Mance's artwork speaks to the enduring power and importance of joy.

    EXCEPTIONAL TEACHING TOOL: To provide context for the artwork, Mance has compiled a timeline of recent events that lend urgency to the fight for Black lives—she highlights the ways that the conversation has shifted since cell phones allowed bystanders to document instances of racial injustice and violence and offers an entry point for anyone who wants to learn about the roots of contemporary racial justice movements.

    Perfect for:
    • Activists and agitators
    • Art book lovers
    • Students of Black history
    • Teachers and parents looking for colorful ways to talk to young people about activism and resistance
  • What Do Brothas Do All Day?

    by Ajuan Mance

    $17.99

    Inspired by Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day?, these joyous portraits of Black men engaged in everyday life celebrate the deep roots and rich cultures of African American communities.

    Have you ever wondered . . .
    What do brothas do all day?
    Brothas drive. Brothas dance. Brothas work. Brothas listen. And brothas love.

    Scarry’s now-classic book, first published in 1968, is a richly illustrated guide to the places, jobs, and activities that defined the daily lives of grown-ups. Author-illustrator Ajuan Mance created What Do Brothas Do All Day?, like Scarry, in response to children’s innate curiosity about the activities and experiences of others, but also to meet the longing many kids have for characters and communities that look and feel like the people and places they know.

    This joyous reflection of real Black men and boys engaged in everyday life is a gift for Black kids who rarely see themselves reflected in the pages of a book and an affirmation of their world and the people who populate it. From grocery shopping and waiting for a trim at the barbershop to singing, dancing, and laughing with friends, Mance captures the beauty in the ordinary, affirming the enduring strength of the Black community.

    DIVERSE BOOKS FOR KIDS: This picture book features real Black men the author has observed in the world—everyday people, not models or stereotypes. One fan describes it as "just a rainbow of Black men, a beautiful rainbow of Black men."

    LIBRARIAN LOVE: What Do Brothas Do All Day? began as an all-ages zine, but the author began to conceive of it as a children's book after being approached by two children's librarians.

    INSPIRED BY A CLASSIC: As the author notes in the book, "I first encountered Richard Scarry’s work in the early 1970s when I was about six years old. The world of adults, with its grocery lists, PTA meetings, shopping trips, and dinner parties, seemed both tantalizingly exotic and impossibly complex. Today, those same descriptors can be applied to the ways that many people of all ages perceive Black men."

    AN INVITATION: The book ends with an invitation, perhaps even a call to action: What will you do today?

    Perfect for:

    • Parents and grandparents seeking engaging read-aloud and read-along picture books
    • Teachers and librarians looking for books featuring Black communities
    • Gift for readers of Jacqueline Woodson, Kwame Alexander, Cedella Marley, and Derrick Barnes books
    • Fans of Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day?
  • Ace of Spades

    by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

    $12.99
    Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully.

    All you need to know is . . . I’m here to divide and conquer. Like all great tyrants do. ―Aces

    When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too.

    Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures.

    As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly?

    With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.
  • Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions cover image

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    $10.00

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Americanah gives us this powerful statement about feminism today—written as a letter to a friend.

    A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a childhood friend, a new mother who wanted to know how to raise her baby girl to be a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie’s letter of response: fifteen invaluable suggestions—direct, wryly funny, and perceptive—for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. Filled with compassionate guidance and advice, it gets right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century, and starts a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.

    A Skimm Reads Pick ● An NPR Best Book of the Year

  • Book cover image

    by Jamaica Kincaid

    $18.00

    *ships in 7 - 10 business days*

    From the recipient of the 2010 Clifton Fadiman Medal, an unforgettable novel of one woman's courageous coming-of-age

    Jamaica Kincaid's The Autobiography of My Mother is a story of love, fear, loss, and the forging of character, an account of one woman's inexorable evolution, evoked in startling and magical poetry.

    Powerful, disturbing, stirring, Jamaica Kincaid's novel is the deeply charged story of a woman's life on the island of Dominica. Xuela Claudette Richardson, the daughter of a Carib mother and a half-Scottish, half-African father, loses her mother to death the moment she is born and must find her way on her own.

    Kincaid takes us from Xuela's childhood in a home where she can hear the song of the sea to the tin-roofed room where she lives as a schoolgirl in the house of Jack LaBatte, who becomes her first lover. Xuela develops a passion for the stevedore Roland, who steals bolts of Irish linen for her from the ships he unloads, but she eventually marries an English doctor, Philip Bailey. Xuela's is an intensely physical world, redolent of overripe fruit, gentian violet, sulfur, and rain on the road, and it seethes with her sorrow, her deep sympathy for those who share her history, her fear of her father, her desperate loneliness. But underlying all is "the black room of the world" that is Xuela's barrenness and motherlessness.

  • The Amazing Adventures of Aya & Pete in Mexico!

    by Serena Minott & Asha Gore

    $18.00
    Aya and Pete are going to visit Mexico! Aya travels with her best friend Esme to meet her family and explore all of the magic and wonder that Mexico has to offer. From the excitement of Mexico City to the historic center of Oaxaca, Aya and Pete explore the foods, languages, arts, landmarks, and historical architecture of one of the most mythical countries in the world. The newest book in the Aya and Pete collection, The Amazing Adventures of Aya & Pete in Mexico is a must-have book for little explorers, and the first book in our next 3-book box set! Ships in a sturdy corrugated flat-pack book box.
  • Colliding with Fate

    by A.E. Valdez

    $27.99

    Kyrell Knight believes life is a game to be played and thoroughly enjoyed. He rarely takes anything seriously, lives in the moment, and indulges in as much pleasure with women as possible. But the sarcasm, money, and women are an attempt to erase the memories of his past as he tries to forget what he came from. It works until his past wants to be a part of his present.

     

    Kyrell reconnects with Quinn Halifax at their mutual best friend's engagement party. They spark up a friendship that quickly turns to flames when it becomes a superficial, no strings attached relationship.

     

    Kyrell is struggling with his past while Quinn is trying to secure her future. Neither is looking for more, but fate has other plans.
    What happens when two people collide with fate?

     

    Content Advisory: child abuse, death, mentions of suicide

  • Aya & Pete 3-Book Gift Box Set

    by Serena Minott & Asha Gore

    $59.00
    Give the gift of adventure with the Aya & Pete gift box set!  This limited edition three-book gift box set features our favorite books from the Amazing Adventures of Aya & Pete travel story collection. Join Aya & Pete on adventures in Paris, London and New York, all packaged in a colorful gift box with top cord handle and velcro closures. Includes 3 hardcover books. Recommended for ages 3+
  • The Amazing Adventures of Aya & Pete in Morocco! (Hardcover)
    $18.00
    Come along with Aya and Pete on a regal adventure to the Kingdom of Morocco! Learn about the foods, sights, music, and landmarks of this enchanting African country as we follow the adventures of Aya and Pete. From a visit to the souks of Marrakech to the mountain town of Chefchaouen, known as the Blue Pearl of Morocco, kids will enjoy the playful story and vibrant illustrations. Every Aya and Pete story takes children on learning adventures to different cities and countries around the world to spark their curiosity, imagination, and broaden their cultural perspectives from an early age. "The Amazing Adventures of Aya & Pete in Morocco" is the fifth book in the Aya and Pete travel collection. Recommended for ages 3-7. Ships in a sturdy corrugated flat-pack book box.
  • Via Ápia: A Novel cover image

    Geovani Martins

    $20.00

    From one of Brazil’s most acclaimed new literary stars, a twenty-first-century epic set in Rio’s largest favela.

    Life on the morro, the hill, is good. Five young people―the brothers Washington and Wesley and their friends Douglas, Murilo, and Biel―live close to Rocinha’s main avenue, Via Ápia, just a quick bus ride from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

    But the rhythms of their lives stutter and scratch when Brazil’s militarized police storm Rocinha as part of “pacification” efforts ahead of the upcoming World Cup and an influx of international tourists. Via Ápia charts the expectant anxiousness before the police’s invasion, the chaos born from their occupation of the hill, and the aftermath of their silent withdrawal from the favela after one year.

    Told in heated bursts and marked by the charged chronology of the protagonists’ lives, Geovani Martins’s prodigious debut novel knits together the dramas and dreams of the favela during a peak of turbulent unrest. Like the boom boom kat of Brazilian funk, the unbridled ambitions and resolute friendships of these characters blare throughout Via Ápia, delivering a resonant counternarrative to the notion that violent interventions are the state’s only remedy to the afflictions of crime and poverty. The favela retorts: life, life is the answer.

  • The Story of My Anger cover image

    Jasminne Mendez

    $19.99

    The Pura Belpré Honor Award winning author of Aniana del Mar Jumps In makes her YA debut with a powerful novel-in-verse about a Texas teen who is battling racism in her theatre program and book banning efforts by her town’s school board.

    Yulieta Lopez is angry. Angry at her racist drama teacher who refuses to cast Black students in lead roles. Angry at the school board threatening her favorite teacher for teaching works of literature that they deem “controversial.” Angry that she has to keep quiet until she can head to college and leave Texas forever.

    Yuli is accustomed to playing various roles: the diligent daughter, the honorable hija, the good girl who serves everyone else before serving herself. But as the fire of Yuli's rage spreads and lights her up, she can no longer be silent. Determined to find a way to fight back, Yuli and her friends start a guerilla theatre club which stirs things up and gets people talking, and finally, Yuli steps into the role she was always meant to play.

  • Stereo(TYPE): Poems cover image

    Jonah Mixon-Webster

    $18.00

    A radical, urgent collection of poems about Blackness, the self, and the dismantling of corrupt powers in the fight for freedom.

    A PEN America Literary Award Winner

    Jonah Mixon-Webster works at the intersections of space and the body, race and region, sexuality and class. Stereo(TYPE), his debut collection of poetry, is a reckoning and a force, a revision of our most sacred mythologies, and a work of documentary reporting from Mixon-Webster’s hometown of Flint, Michigan, where clean tap water remains an uncertainty and the aftermath of racist policies persist.

    Challenging stereotypes through scenes that scatter with satire, violence, and the extreme vagaries of everyday life, Mixon-Webster invents visual/sonic forms, conceptualizes poems as transcripts and frequently asked questions, and dives into dreamscapes and modern tragedies, deconstructing the very foundations America is built on. Interrogating language and the ways we wield it as both sword and shield, Stereo(TYPE) is a one-of-a-kind, rapturous collection of vital and beautiful poems.

Stay Informed. We're building a community committed to celebrating Black authors + artisans. Subscribe to keep up with all things Kindred Stories.