Books Featuring Black Mermaids & Sirens

Eleven-year-old Corinne must call on her courage and an ancient magic to stop an evil spirit and save her island home.

"An encounter between a brown mermaid and pirate launches a humorous tale of friendship that shows how kindness and empathy go beyond words."-- Provided by publisher.

Suspicion falls on half-jumbie Corinee when local children from her Caribbean island home begin to disappear, and she is forced to go deep into the ocean to seek the help of a dangerous jumbie who rules the waves.

When she discovers her father's new girlfriend, Mariss, is actually a sea creature eager to take her place as his first love, Josephine must convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save her dad from Mariss' clutches.

Transformed by the goddess Yemoja into a Mami Wati, an African mermaid charged with collecting the souls of those who die at sea, Simi goes against the gods to save a living boy, Kola, from drowning.

When signs of the eight ajogun begin to appear, Simi teams up with the corrupt trickster god Esu to stop the demon warlords before they enter the human realm and ruin humankind.

Three very different Black mermaid princesses--and sisters--find out which one of them has what it takes to become the legend of the sea when a big problem comes their way, in this enchanting adventure inspired by African mermaid myth, magic, and spirituality.

Once Portland-famous and now infamous, seventeen-year-old Naema Bradshaw is an Eloko--a charismatic person gifted with a melody that people adore--who navigates a personal and public reckoning, confronts the limits of her priviledge, and discovers the nature of her Black girl magic.

Best friends, Tavia and Effie, struggle to hide their supernatural identities in a society that discriminates against people with their abilities.

"In this reinvention of Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale, a little mermaid trades her voice for legs and makes a new friend on land, but must return to the sea to save her family"-- Provided by publisher.

Visiting her grandmother in the Louisiana bayou, ten-year-old Maddy begins to realize that she may be the only sibling to carry on the gift of her family's magical legacy.

Unhappy with her life at home, Sukey receives kindness and wealth from Mama Jo the mermaid.

"When Kenzie slips on her mermaid tail, she becomes Mermaid Kenzie, protector of the deeps. One day as Kenzie snorkels around a shipwreck, she discovers more plastic bags than fish. Grabbing her spear and mermaid net, she begins to clean up the water and the shore--inspiring other kids to help"-- Provided by publisher

"The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society -- and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the [...] song "The Deep" from Daveed Diggs's rap group clipping. Yetu holds the memories for her people -- water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners -- who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one -- the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities -- and discovers a world her people left behind long ago. Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past -- and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they'll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity -- and own who they really are. Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode "We Are In The Future," The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting." -- Provided by publisher.

Twelve-year-old Kela is still mourning her mother when she finds a mermaid's comb while she and her friend are looking for sea glass on her Caribbean island; such combs have magic in them, and touching it opens a connection to the mermaid Ophidia who can grant her wish, to bring her mother back to life--but all wishes have consequences, and magic demands a price which may prove to be more painful than the loss of her mother.