M.J. Fievre’s Badass Black Girl has been nominated for the 2021 Top Nonfiction Award! Check out the announcement here.
Congratulations! We are pleased to let you know that Badass Black Girl: Quotes, Questions, and Affirmations for Teens by M. J. Fievre has been selected for the Top Nonfiction Novel for the 2021 In the Margins Book Award List. This title is also part of our Top Ten List and Nonfiction Recommendation Listfor 2021. After careful consideration and heated debate, our committee of librarians who work with marginalized youth decided that your book is an outstanding fit for our book award and charge.
Badass Black Girl: Quotes, Questions, and Affirmations for Teens is written in the style of journal entries, providing black girls and femme-identifying youth with daily affirmations to help them tackle issues of friendship, identity, school, career, bullying, and stereotypes so they can push past the barriers that prevent them from turning their dreams into a future reality. Many of the passages are from well known black female leaders, writers, and celebrities, as well as historical figures. Part celebration, part spiritual wish, part memoir, Fievre incorporates her Haitian roots into the book’s text by ending each chapter with Kempe, a Creole word of encouragement that can be interpreted to mean hold firm or be strong. After reading the book, the committee came to a consensus that “while the book is written for black girls, girls of all diverse backgrounds will be able to gain insight from the advice, as well.”
Our announcement of the award list, top ten titles, and winning titles (one fiction, one non-fiction, and one advocacy) will go live on the In the Margins Book Award website and published by School Library Journal February 9, 2021. Please feel free to announce your win on social media along with any other award your book may have won. We would be grateful if you included In the Margins and the link here https://inthemarginssite.wordpress.com/awards-list/ in publicity for your book. As the top fiction title, our award label for Top 10 Fiction has been attached for your convenience.
Because your book will be receiving quite a bit of attention and will draw interest from librarians, you will want to consider placing it with a distributor that is accessible for purchase. Most libraries do not purchase from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but from Follett, Ingram, and/or Baker & Taylor.
In the Margins’ charge seeks to highlight the best fiction and non-fiction titles (Pre-K through Adult) of high-interest appeal for readers ages 9-21, with a preference for marginalized books (small, independent press or self-published). Our primary focus is on the narratives and informational text the disproportionality of injustices caused to BIPOC youth from the historical impact of cultural irrelevance and structural exclusion which often find members of these diverse ethnicities navigating through and living disproportionately in poverty, in the streets, in custody, or in a cycle of all three.
badass black girl
Questions, Quotes, and Affirmations for Teens
Explore the many facets of your identity through hundreds of big and small questions. In this journal designed for teenage Black girls, MJ Fievre tackles topics such as family and friends, school and careers, body image, and stereotypes. By reflecting on these topics, you will confront the issues that can hold you back from living your best life and discovering your Black girl bliss.
Embrace authenticity and celebrate who you are. Finding the courage to live as you are is not easy, so here’s a journal designed to help you nurture creativity, positive self-awareness and Black girl bliss. This journal honors the strength and spirit of Black girls.