Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Shanah of the Bionic Book Worm. I’ve been following her blog for a while and you probably should, too. She’s a great book blogger and super sweet.

I’ve been eyeing the Top 5 series for a some time now, and ever since I stopped doing Two for Tuesdays, I’ve missed having the weekly content. I’m always worried about joining things like these because I don’t know if I’ll keep up with it, but that’s not an excuse to not try.

This week’s topic spoke to me. If you follow my blog (and bookstagram) you already know how much I love beautiful book covers. The real challenge is limiting me to five.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

With the Fire on High has been one of my top reads of the summer, and frankly, of the year. This book cover is especially unique because of what’s under the book jacket, hence the peek from this photo. I’m loving this afro-latina rep on the cover. The curls and satin scarf combo is classic.

Slay by Brittney Morrison

Again, I am so thankful I won this ARC copy of Slay in a giveaway. It’s a super cool story and the cover is giving me virtual reality vibes. I was iffy going into it, but it was so well done. Now I want to meet at dawn.

Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday by Natalie C. Anderson

My full review will be up next Friday but, spoiler alert, I really enjoyed Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday. I was worried because the author herself is white but you can tell there’s so much research that went into this and a respect for the overall culture. Also, how often do we see black boys on the cover of YA?

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

I haven’t read Let Me Hear a Rhyme yet. I’m waiting for the hustle and bustle of school to die down so I can really get into it. I read Monday’s Not Coming (also an amazing book cover) for The Reading Rush and now I want to read all of Tiffany D. Jackson’s work. Her writing is A-1.

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

I’ve been waiting for some good YA Contemporary with a Haitian main character. I was sadly disappointed with American Street last year, but I have some high hopes for Dear Haiti, Love Alaine.

Welcome to my TED Talk

You may have noticed a theme in the books I’ve picked. Representation is very important to me, so seeing someone who looks like me on the cover of a book has been a dream come true these past few years.

I touched on it a little in my review of My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, but, growing up, I rarely saw girls who looked like me on book covers. I’ve always loved to read, but the only time I got a chance to read books with black main characters as a kid was when I read slave narratives. I kid you not, I used to read the Dear America series and the only books about black girls were ones on slavery and racism.

Then, my middle school English teacher introduced me to books by Sharon Draper and Sharon G. Flake. Still hard hitting stories, but ones with a nearly all black cast of high school aged students living in the 21st century. The stories didn’t just revolve around their race, they talked about current things that students go through.

I love the direction literature’s taking now. It does have it’s fair share of pandering and misrepresentation, but there are also so many amazing stories coming through. Having these beautiful book covers may seem trivial to some, but for girls like me these mean so much more.

Thank you for coming to me TED Talk. Comment below if you actually read the whole thing, I got a little off-topic but still on-topic there.

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What would you add to this list?

Do you judge a book by it’s cover? (BE HONEST)

Have you read any of these books?

Let me know in the comments, let’s chat!