“People of color, particularly African-Americans, feel the stigma more keenly. In a race-conscious society, some don’t want to be perceived as having yet another deficit.”
It is essential that author and educator BeBe Moore Campbell is remembered this month—and beyond—as an advocate for mental health awareness and services for Black people and people of color. July is BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month, also and formerly known as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. The quote above is from the NPR article Bebe Moore Campbell: The Stigma of Mental Illness. This article tells more about the impetus for her advocacy. Campbell’s picture book, Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry (Putnam, E. B. Lewis, 2003) and 72 Hour Hold (Knopf, 2005), an adult novel, both discuss bipolar disorder.
The 12 middle-grade and young adult books (more here and here) are all fiction, and deal with mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, and self-harm—and they may not always be conditions of the main character.
If you know of any other books—available now or coming soon—that should be on this list, or if you want to offer a correction, leave a comment below.
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1. The Minus-One Club
Kekla Magoon | Henry Holt and Co, BYR | January 24, 2023 | YA | Amazon | IndieBound
2. We Are All So Good at Smiling
Amber McBride | Feiwel & Friends | January 10, 2023 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
3. Rain Rising
Courtne Comrie | HarperCollins | September 27, 2022 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
4. Moonflower
Kacen Callender | Scholastic Inc. | September 6, 2022 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
5. Bad Things Happen Here
Rebecca Barrow | Margaret K. McElderry Books | June 28, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
6. We Weren’t Looking to Be Found
Stephanie Kuehn | Disney-Hyperion | June 21, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
7. Break This House
Candice Iloh | Dutton BYR | May 24, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
8. How to Live Without You
Sarah Everett | Clarion Books | May 17, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
9. In the Key of Us
Mariama Lockington | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) | April 26, 2022 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
10. The Chosen One: A First-Generation Ivy League Odyssey
Echo Brown | Christy Ottaviano Books | January 4, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
11. Every Body Looking
Candice Iloh | Dutton BYR | September 22, 2020 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
12. Micah: The Good Girl (Flyy Girls, Bk. 2)
Ashley Woodfolk | Penguin Workshop | September 1, 2020 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
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