Chocolate Me!
by Taye Diggs
The boy is teased for looking different than other kids. His skin is darker, his hair curlier. He tells his mother he wishes he could be more like everyone else, & she helps him to see how beautiful he is.
I Am Enough
by Grace Byers
Shares a story of loving who you are, respecting others and being kind to one another.
Sulwe
by Lupita Nyong’o
When five-year-old Sulwe’s classmates make fun of her dark skin, she tries lightening herself to no avail, but her encounter with a shooting star helps her understand there is beauty in every shade.
Hair Love
by Matthew A. Cherry
A little girl’s Daddy steps in to help her arrange her curly, coiling, wild hair into styles that allow her to be her natural, beautiful self.
Amazing Grace
by Mary Hoffman
Although a classmate says that she cannot play Peter Pan in the school play because she is black, Grace discovers that she can do anything she sets her mind to do.
Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline Woodson
In poems, Woodson shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.
Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Paul Curtis
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father–the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
One Crazy Summer
by Rita Williams-Garcia
In the summer of 1968, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters travel to their mother’s to a cold welcome when she is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
Gone Crazy in Alabama
by Rita Williams-Garcia
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother, Big Ma, and her mother, Ma Charles. And when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.
As Brave as You
by Jason Reynolds
When Genie and his older brother spend their summer in the country with their grandparents, he learns a secret about his grandfather and what it means to be brave.
Little Leaders: Bold Woman in Black History
by Vashti Harrison
Debut author/illustrator Vashti Harrison shares the stories of 40 bold African American women who shaped history.
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut
by Derrick Barnes
Celebrates the magnificent feeling that comes from walking out of a barber shop with newly-cut hair.
Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad
by Ellen Levine
A fictionalized account of how in 1849 a Virginia slave, Henry “Box” Brown, escapes to freedom by shipping himself in a wooden crate from Richmond to Philadelphia.
Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
by Javaka Steptoe
The story of Jean-Michael Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings.