Happy Caribbean-American Heritage Month! (There are many June observances and holidays - for instance, it’s also Pride Month and Audiobook Month. Today (June 1) is International Dinosaur Day too!)

This year marks the 18th National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, which acknowledges the abundant cultural heritage of those with Caribbean ancestry and their innumerable contributions to the United States of America. My love to Antigua, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica (pride over here), Grenada, St. Lucia, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and more!  For more resources, Caribbean American Heritage Month,  The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival, and Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute are great go-to's.

As I always like to remind everyone, the objective of these acknowledgments is to make time for additional awareness, celebration, recognition, and learning connected to the particular matter, whether it’s about culture and identity, what’s going on in the country or world, or appreciation for ebooks and audiobooks because they deserve love.

By the way, 787 Coffee (whose cup is shown here) originated in Puerto Rico, and is also based throughout NYC. One of their coffee shops is a few blocks from the Library!

Without further ado, here are the books that I would love to recommend to you from our Library’s collection. Some of these books focus on Caribbean writers and some on Caribbean American writers.

• Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café edited by Miguel Algarín and Bob Holman
• Looking for a Jumbie by Tracey Baptiste; illustrated by Amber Ren
• Duppy Stories: Ghosts, Gremlins, and Rolling Calves by David Brailsford; illustrated by John Stilgoe
• Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work by Edwidge Danticat
• All The Way To Havana by Margarita Engle; illustrated by Mike Curato
• If I Survive You (ebook) by Jonathan Escoffery
• Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez (physical copy, ebook, and audiobook located at the link)

• Talk Stories by Jamaica Kincaid; foreword by Ian Frazier
• How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House: A Novel by Cherie Jones
• Complete Poems by Claude McKay, edited and with an introduction by William J. Maxwell
• The Return of Felix Nogara: A Novel by Pablo Medina
• A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea And Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey
• The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts: A Novel by Soraya Palmer
• The Children of Sisyphus: A Novel by Orlando Patterson, introduction by Kwame Dawes
• The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

• A Girl's Guide To Love & Magic by Debbie Rigaud
• Becoming Julia de Burgos: The Making Of A Puerto Rican Icon by Vanessa Pérez Rosario
• More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
• The Star-Apple Kingdom by Derek Walcott
• Black Cake: A Novel by Charmaine Wilkerson