Leah T. Williams

Maya, Kendra, and Destiny thought their day off from school would be all fun and freedom. They had no idea history had other plans. Maya Johnson has one plan for October 11th, Black Girls Day Off.

Seventeen-year-old Kadeem Johnson is out of chances. Another fight. Another suspension. But this time, his mother isn’t just grounding him—she’s putting him on a plane.

Gwendolyn Richards dreams of more than the narrow life mapped out for her on the island. But freedom and passion come at a cost. As she wrestles with first love, heartbreak, and the pull of independence, Gwen’s voice carries the rhythm of the Caribbean—warm, lyrical, and unforgettable.

Some homes you carry in your suitcase. Others, you leave buried under a guava tree. In this moving novel-in-verse, Mina has just uprooted her life in St. Kitts to start over in Orlando—a place of strange food, strange people, and a silence that stretches between her and the world.