Black Reading List for Children and Young Adults
ELEMENTARY (GRADES PREK-3)
A Bus of Our Own, Freddi Williams Evans
Africa Dream, Eloise Greenfield
Allie’s Basketball Dream, Barbara E. Barber
Almost to Freedom, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Ananse’s Feast : An Ashanti Tale, Tololwa M. Mollel
Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry, Ashley Bryan
Before John Was a Jazz Giant, Carole Boston Weatherford
Big boy, Tololwa M. Mollel
Big Mama’s, Donald Crews
Bill Pickett: Rodeo-Ridin Cowboy, Andrea Pinkney & Brian Pinkney
Bright Eyes, Brown Skin, Cheryl Hudson & Bernette Ford
Dia’s Story Cloth, Dia Cha
Drylongso, Virginia Hamilton
Dume’s Roar, Tololwa M. Mollel
Everett Anderson’s Good-bye, Lucille Clifton
Gettin’ Through Thursday, by Melrose Cooper
Goin’ Someplace Special, by Patricia C. McKissack
Grandpa’s Face, Eloise Greenfield
Honey, I Love, Eloise Greenfield
I Am Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks & James Haskins
I Dream of Trains, Angela Johnson
I’ve Seen the Promised Land: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Walter Dean Myers
In the Land of Words: New and Selected Poems, Jan Spivey Gilchrist
Kitoto The Mighty, Tololwa M. Mollel
Let It Shine, Ashley Bryan
Mama’s Window, Lynn Rubright
Mary McLeod Bethune, Eloise Greenfield
My Rows And Piles Of Coins, Tololwa M. Mollel
Neeny Coming, Neeny Going, Karen English
Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales, Nelson Mandela
Our Gracie Aunt, Jacqueline Woodson
Running the Road to ABC, Denize Lauture
Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry, Bebe Moore Campbell
Subira Subira, Tololwa M. Mollel
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, Langston Hughes & Brian Pinkney
The Hard-Times Jar, by Ethel Footman Smothers
The Orphan Boy : A Maasai Story, Tololwa M. Mollel
The Other Side, Jacqueline Woodson
The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children, Gregorie Christie
The Patchwork Quilt, Valerie Flournoy
Thunder Rose, Jerdine Nolen
Uptown, Bryan Collier
Visiting Day, Jacqueline Woodson
Visiting Langston, Bryan Collier
Elementary (Grades 4-5)
A Little Love, Virginia Hamilton
Aida, Leontyne Price
Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, R. Gregory Christie
Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra, Andrea Davis Pinkney
Ellington Was Not a Street, Ntozake Shange & Kadir Nelson
Harlem, Walter Dean Myers
I Have Heard of a Land, Joyce Carol Thomas
Maritcha, Tonya Bolden
Meet Danitra Brown, Nikki Grimes
Mirandy and Brother Wind, Patricia McKissack
Nathaniel Talking, Eloise Greenfield
Night on the Neighborhood Street, Eloise Greenfield
Rainbow Jordan, Alice Childress
Something on My Mind, Nikki Grimes
Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman, Nikki Grimes
The Bat Boy and His Violin, Gavin Curtis
The Great Migration: An American Story, Jacob Lawrence
The Hunterman and the Crocodile, Baba Waguè Diakitè
The Road to Memphis, Mildred Taylor
The Singing Man, Angela Shelf Medearis
The Strange New Feeling, Julius Lester
Under the Sunday Tree, Eloise Greenfield
Middle School (Grades 6-8)
A Thief in the Village and Other Stories, James Berry
Eighth-Grade Superzero, Olugbemiosola Rhuday-Perkovich
Andrew Young: Young Man With a Mission, James Haskins
Another Way to Dance, Martha Southgate
Bayard Rustin: Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movement, James Haskins
Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African American Whalers, Patricia C. & Frederick L. McKissack
Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir, Eloise Greenfield and Lessie Jones Little
Dark Sons, Nikki Grimes
Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States, Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack
Days of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue, Julius Lester
Elijah of Buxton, Christopher Paul Curtis
Forged by Fire, Sharon M. Draper
Francie, Karen English
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, Ben Carson
Heaven, Angela Johnson
I See the Rhythm, Toyomi Igus
Junius Over Far, Virginia Hamilton
Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World, Mildred Pitts Walter
Keeping the Night Watch, Hope Anita Smith
Let It Shine! Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters, Andrea Davis Pinkney
Let the Circle Be Unbroken, Mildred D. Taylor
Locomotion, Jacqueline Woodson
Maizon at Blue Hill, Jacqueline Woodson
Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl, Tonya Bolden
Miracle’s Boys, Jacqueline Woodson
Now is Your Time: The African American Struggle for Freedom, Walter Dean Myers
Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts, Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack
Soujourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?, Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, Virginia Hamilton
The Battle of Jericho, Sharon Draper
The Land, Mildred Taylor
The Legend of Buddy Bush, Sheila P. Moses
The Other Side: Shorter Poems, Angela Johnson
The Road to Paris, Nikki Grimes
The Skin I’m In, Sharon Flake
The Way a Door Closes, Hope Anita Smith
The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King
Toning the Sweep, Angela Johnson
Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali – Charles R. Smith, Jr.
W.E.B. Du Bois, David Levering Lewis
We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, Kadir Nelson
High School (Grades 9-12)
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave, Virginia Hamilton
Barbara Jordan, James Haskins
Becoming Billie Holiday, Carole Boston Weatherford
Benjamin Banneker, Lillie Patterson
Carver: A Life in Poems, Marilyn Nelson
Copper Sun, Sharon Draper
Coretta Scott King, Lillie Patterson
Cornrows, Camille Yarborough
Darkness Before Dawn, Sharon Draper
Don’t Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday, Alexis De Veaux
Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers
Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem, Marilyn Nelson
I Never Had It Made: the Autobiography of Jackie Robinson, Alfred Duckett
James Van Der Zee: The Picture Takin’ Man, James Haskins
Just Another Hero, Sharon M. Draper
Lena Horne, James Haskins
Let the Lion Eat Straw, Ellease Southerland
Lou in the Limelight, Kristin Hunter
Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary, Walter Dean Myers
Mississippi Challenge, Mildred Pitts Walter
Monster, Walter Dean Myers
Movin’ Up, Berry Gordy
My Chill Wind, Janet McDonald
Remember: The Journey to School Integration, Toni Morrison
The First Part Last, Angela Johnson
The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl, Virginia Hamilton, Lena Horne, James Haskins
The Middle Passage: White Ships Black Cargo, Tom Feelings
The Story of Stevie Wonder, James Haskins
The Young Landlords, Walter Dean Myers
This Life, Sidney Poitier
We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Led to Success, Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt and Sharon Draper
Prepared by Dr. Askhari Johnson Hodari, author of The African Book of Names (HCI, 2009) and Lifelines: The Black Book of Proverbs (Broadway Books, 2009) (both available wherever books are sold). For more information, or to download this document, visit drhodari.com. You have permission to copy and distribute this document as long as this entire footer remains visible and intact. Copyright ©2011 Dr. Askhari Johnson Hodari. All rights reserved.