Celebrate Black History Month with books by Black authors and writing focusing on Black characters, history, and culture. We hope these selections serve to educate and encourage a dialogue on topics of Black history and experiences, as well as highlight authors and stories from a variety of genres.


A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson

There’s a sweet, sweet smell in the air as two young girls sneak out of their house, down the street, and across town to where men and women are gathered, ready to march for freedom and justice. Inspired by the countless young people who took a stand against the forces of injustice, this picture book offers a stirring yet jubilant glimpse of the youth involvement that played an invaluable role in the Civil Rights movement.

Available formats: Book


Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford

As slaves relentlessly toiled in an unjust system in 19th century Louisiana, they all counted down the days until Sunday, when at least for half a day they were briefly able to congregate in Congo Square in New Orleans. Here they were free to set up an open market, sing, dance, and play music. They were free to forget their cares, their struggles, and their oppression. This story chronicles slaves’ duties each day, from chopping logs on Mondays to baking bread on Wednesdays to plucking hens on Saturday, and builds to the freedom of Sundays and the special experience of an afternoon spent in Congo Square.

Available formats: Book, Audiobook (Hoopla)


The ABC’s of Black History by Rio Cortez

This picture book celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy.
It’s a story of big ideas––P is for Power, S is for Science and Soul. Of significant moments––G is for Great Migration. Of iconic figures––H is for Zora Neale Hurston, X is for Malcom X. It’s an ABC book like no other, and a story of hope and love. The book includes back matter with information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, and the Little Rock Nine to DJ Kool Herc.

Available formats: Book


Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by Jonah Winter

This picture book reflects on the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement to extend and protect the voting rights of African Americans in the United States.  An elderly woman, Lillian recalls that her great-great-grandparents were sold as slaves in front of a courthouse where only rich white men were allowed to vote, then the long fight that led to her right–and determination–to cast her ballot since the Voting Rights Act gave every American the right to vote.  Beautiful, bold illustrations add poignancy to this character’s reflections and encourage the reader to reflect on injustices and the efforts of community to overcome them.

Available formats:  Book


This Is the Rope: A Story From the Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson

During the time of the Great Migration, millions of African American families relocated from the South, seeking better opportunities. The story of one family’s journey north during the Great Migration starts with a little girl in South Carolina who finds a rope under a tree one summer. She has no idea the rope will become part of her family’s history. But for three generations, that rope is passed down, used for everything from jump rope games to tying suitcases onto a car for the big move north to New York City, and even for a family reunion where that first little girl is now a grandmother.

Available formats:  Book


The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko

This is the story of one brave family: Mildred Loving, Richard Perry Loving, and their three children. It is the story of how Mildred and Richard fell in love, and got married in Washington, D.C. But when they moved back to their hometown in Virginia, they were arrested  for violating that state’s laws against interracial marriage. The Loving’s refused to allow their children to get the message that their parents’ love was wrong and so they fought the unfair law, taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court .

Available formats:  Book


Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine

Henry dreams about freedom all the time, but that dream seems farther away than ever when he is torn from his family and put to work in a warehouse. Henry grows up and marries, but he is again devastated when his family is sold at the slave market. Then one day, as he lifts a crate at the warehouse, he knows exactly what he must do: He will mail himself to the North. After an arduous journey in the crate, Henry finally has his first day of freedom.

Available formats: Book


I Got the School Spirit by Connie Schofield-Morrison

Summer is over, and this little girl has got the school spirit! She hears the school spirit in the bus driving up the street–VROOM, VROOM!–and in the bell sounding in the halls–RING-A-DING! She sings the school spirit in class with her friends.

Available formats: Book, eBook  (Overdrive Media on Demand)


Happy Hair by Renee Roe Mechal

This beautiful Girls will love seeing strong, happy reflections of themselves in this vibrant, rhythmic book full of beautiful Black hairstyles. From a cute crop to pom-pom puffs, adorable illustrations of girls with gorgeous braids, blowouts, and bantus grace each page, side by side with a positive message that will make girls cheer. Pair this story with the author’s other book Cool Cuts.

Available formats: Book, eBook  (Overdrive Media on Demand)


I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes

The confident Black narrator of this Picture book is proud of everything that makes him who he is. He’s got big plans, and no doubt he’ll see them through–as he’s creative, adventurous, smart, funny, and a good friend. Sometimes he falls, but he always gets back up. And other times he’s afraid, because he’s so often misunderstood and called what he is not. So slow down and really look and listen, when somebody tells you–and shows you–who they are.

Available formats: Book


Your Name Is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

Saddened by her classmates’ and teacher’s mispronunciations of her name, a girl is empowered by her discovery that names are like songs when she and her mom celebrate the musicality of African, Asian, Black-American, Latinx, and Middle Eastern names. This touching picture book is filled with beautiful, bright full page illustrations.

Available formats: Book


Juneteenth for Mazie by Floyd Cooper

Mazie is ready to celebrate liberty. She is ready to celebrate freedom. She is ready to celebrate a great day in American history. The day her ancestors were no longer slaves. Mazie remembers the struggles and the triumph, as she gets ready to celebrate Juneteenth.

Available formats: Book


This Jazz Man By Karen Ehrhardt

In this toe-tapping jazz tribute, the traditional “This Old Man” gets a swinging makeover, and some of the era’s best musicians take center stage. The lyrical text, spills across the full page collage style illustrations.

Available formats: Book


Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford

This picture book explored Tubman’s spiritual journey as she hears the voice of God guiding her north to freedom on that very first trip to escape the brutal practice of forced servitude. Tubman would make nineteen subsequent trips back south, never being caught, but none as profound as this first one.

Available formats: Book


Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to my Daughters by Barack Obama

In this tender, beautiful letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation. From the artistry of Georgia O’Keeffe, to the courage of Jackie Robinson, to the patriotism of George Washington, President Obama sees the traits of these heroes within his own children, and within all of America’s children.

Available formats: Book


Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis by Jabari Asim

John wants to be a preacher when he grows up a leader whose words stir hearts to change, minds to think, and bodies to take action. When John is put in charge of the family farm’s flock of chickens, he discovers that they make a wonderful congregation! So he preaches to his flock, and they listen, content under his watchful care, riveted by the rhythm of his voice. Celebrating ingenuity and dreaming big, this inspirational story, featuring Jabari Asim’s stirring prose and E.B. Lewis’s stunning, light-filled impressionistic watercolor paintings.

Available formats: Book


Africville by Shauntay Grant

When a young girl visits the site of Africville, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the stories she’s heard from her family come to mind. She imagines what the community was once like the brightly painted houses nestled into the hillside, the field where boys played football, the pond where all the kids went rafting, the bountiful fishing, the huge bonfires. Coming out of her reverie, she visits the present-day park and the sundial where her great- grandmother’s name is carved in stone, and celebrates a summer day at the annual Africville Reunion/Festival.

Available formats: Book, eBook (Hoopla)


Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Will Allen is no ordinary farmer. A former basketball star, he’s as tall as his truck, and he can hold a cabbage or a basketball in one hand. But what is most special about Farmer Will is that he can see what others can’t see. When he looked at an abandoned city lot in Milwaukee he saw a huge table, big enough to feed the whole world.

Available formats: eBook (Hoopla)


Steamboat School by Deborah Hopkinson

When James first started school, his sister practically had to drag him there. The classroom was dark and dreary, and James knew everything outside was more exciting than anything he’d find inside. But his teacher taught him otherwise. “We make our own light here,” Reverend Meachum told James. And through hard work and learning, they did, until their school was shut down by a new law forbidding African American education in Missouri. Determined to continue teaching his students, Reverend John Berry Meachum decided to build a new school, a floating school, in the Mississippi River, just outside the boundary of the unjust law.

Available formats: Book


Let’s Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout; Dance, Spin & Turn It Out! by Patricia C. McKissack

This picture book celebrates the rich storytelling history of Black Americans. Parents and grandparents will delight in sharing this exuberant book with the children in their lives. Here is a songbook, a storybook, a poetry collection, and much more, all rolled into one. Find a partner for hand claps such as “Eenie, Meenie, Sassafreeny,” or form a circle for games like “Little Sally Walker.” Gather as a family to sing well-loved songs like “Amazing Grace” and “Oh, Freedom,” or to read aloud the poetry of such African American luminaries as Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. And snuggle down to enjoy classic stories retold by the author, including Aesop’s fables and tales featuring Br’er Rabbit and Anansi the Spider.

Available formats: eBook  (Overdrive Media on Demand)


 

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