African American Books

Picture Books | Fiction | Poetry | Nonfiction

The books recommended below were published within the last several years. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion.

Picture Books
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

The Moon Over Star written by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (Dial)
In the summer of 1969, three astronauts and their historic moon landing inspire one young girl to dream, though her grandfather doesn’t share her enthusiasm. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Night Running: How James Escaped with the Help of His Faithful Dog written by Elisa Carbone, illustrated by E. B. Lewis (Knopf)
Allegedly based on a real incident, this dramatic escape story tells how James, a young runaway slave, is unexpectedly aided by his dog Zeus. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Happy Birthday, Jamela! written and illustrated by Niki Daly (Farrar)
In her fourth book, trouble-prone Jamela is once again surrounded by love, even when she turns her school shoes into “Princess Shoes.” Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

I Saw Your Face written by Kwam Dawes, illustrated by Tom Feelings (Dial)
A lyrical celebration of the African diaspora with portrait sketches by the late artist. Grade level: 3–6. 32 pages.

Jazz on a Saturday Night written and illustrated by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon (Blue Sky/Scholastic)
The talented octet of Miles Davis, Max Roach, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Stanley Clarke, Ella Fitzgerald, and an unnamed guest guitarist offer up a toe-tapping imaginary performance in this celebration of jazz. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Princess Grace written by Mary Hoffman, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu (Dial)
When Grace hears that two girls from her class will be chosen to ride as princesses on a parade float, she asks Nana for a pink fairy-tale dress; but after learning about other kinds of princesses from her teacher, she chooses a dress made of kente cloth from her father’s country of Gambia. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Yo, Jo! written and illustrated by Rachel Isadora (Harcourt)
Vibrant collage illustrations bring to life young Jomar’s stroll through his multiethnic urban neighborhood. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Uh-oh! written and illustrated by Rachel Isadora (Harcourt)
Vibrantly colored pastels present before-and-after scenes from a mischievous toddler's day. Grade level: Preschool. 32 pages.

Henry’s Freedom Box written by Ellen Levine, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Scholastic)
The fictionalized story of Henry “Box” Brown, who mailed himself north to freedom in a wooden box. Grade level: 2–5. 40 pages.

Way Up and Over Everything written by Alice McGill, illustrated by Jude Daly (Houghton)
In McGill’s powerful retelling of this folktale, Jane, a slave, witnesses the arrival of five newly purchased Africans and then escapes with them as they spring aloft, hand in hand, to vanish into the sky. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Precious and the Boo Hag written by Patricia C. McKissack and Onawumi Jean Moss, illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker (Schwartz/Atheneum)
Precious tries to prevent Pruella the Boo Hag from tricking her way into the house. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Stitchin’ and Pullin’: A Gee’s Bend Quilt written by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera (Random)
The tale of Baby Girl learning to quilt from her mother, grandmother, aunts, and neighbors brings the now-famous story of the Gee’s Bend, Alabama, quilters to a younger audience. Grade level: K–3. 48 pages.

blues journey written by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Christopher Myers (Holiday)
Themes of racism, loneliness, slavery, and just plain hard luck run through this evocation of the blues. Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Honor for Picture Book. Grade level: 4–6. 48 pages.

Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation written by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (Amistad/Greenwillow)
A guitar-playing hound recounts the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott, his bluesy, empowering voice accompanied by exuberant illustrations. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Peggony-Po: A Whale of a Tale written by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (Jump/Hyperion)
A whaler carves himself a son out of driftwood in this original tall tale, illustrated with a scratchboard technique that conveys the ocean’s force and motion. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

My Best Friend written by Mary Ann Rodman, illustrated by Christopher Myers (Viking)
Six-year-old Lily tries to befriend an older girl at the neighborhood pool. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Hair for Mama written by Kelly A. Tinkham, illustrated by Amy June Bates (Dial)
A realistic and tender story about a mother’s bout with cancer and its impact on her family. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue (Dial)
Eight-year-old Connie recounts the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins in North Carolina. Grade level: 1–5. 32 pages.

Squashed in the Middle written by Elizabeth Winthrop, illustrated by Pat Cummings (Holt)
A middle child just wants her family to listen! Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Show Way written by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Hudson Talbot (Putnam)
Following eight generations from the time of slavery, the author stitches her family tree together with a refrain of mother-daughter love. Grade level: 1–5. 48 pages.

Fiction
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon)
Isabel, a slave recently bought by Loyalists in 1776 New York, becomes a spy for rebel Patriots. Grade level: 5–8. 316 pages.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation by M. T. Anderson (Candlewick)
Volume I: The Pox Party
Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves
Owned and educated by a society of New England philosophers, a slave in eighteenth-century Boston discovers that Enlightenment ideals are no match for human savagery as the America Revolution erupts around him. Grade level: 7 and up. 359 pages and 570 pages.

Kendra by Coe Booth (Push/Scholastic)
Kendra, a grounded, intelligent teen living in the Bronx projects, deals with a confusing romance, her newly Ph.D.-holding mother’s distance, and the volatile friendship of her same-age aunt and best friend Adonna. Grade level: 7 and up. 293 pages.

Tyrell by Coe Booth (Push/Scholastic)
A tough-talking but vulnerable fifteen-year-old boy struggles to keep his family housed in this story of the intimate deprivations (and moments of connection) of living poor. Grade level: 7 and up. 311 pages.

Vive La Paris by Esme Raji Codell (Hyperion)
Wannabe “polite person” Paris and her gentle older brother bond with Paris’s eccentric piano teacher, Mrs. Rosen, a Holocaust survivor. Grade level: 4–6. 214 pages.

The Black Canary by Jane Louise Curry (McElderry)
A bi-racial teen time-travels from modern-day London to the year 1600. Grade level: 4–6. 280 pages.

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic)
Elijah, the first child born free in Underground Railroad–era Buxton, a Canadian refuge for freed slaves, grows up over a series of increasingly heart-rending lessons, tests, and adventures. 341 pages.

The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones by Helen Hemphill (Front Street)
In 1876 Tennessee thirteen-year-old African American Prometheus Jones and his younger cousin earn a place with a cattle drive bound for Texas to escape trouble. Grade level: 6–9. 228 pages.

Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue written and illustrated by Julius Lester (Jump/Hyperion)
The final day of the largest slave auction in American history is brought to life through fictional monologues and conversations. Grade level: 7 and up. 177 pages.

Letters from a Slave Boy: The Story of Joseph Jacobs by Mary E. Lyons (Atheneum)
The son of Harriet Jacobs (Letters from a Slave Girl) keeps a diary of unsent letters, chronicling his escape from slavery and subsequent adventures in 1840s Boston, California, and Australia. Grade level: 6–8. 198 pages.

Harlem Hustle by Janet McDonald (Foster/Farrar)
An aspiring rap star who is struggling in high school is introduced to the literature of the Harlem Renaissance. A keen sense of the rhythms of dialogue and rap, distinct for every character and setting, bring New York City to life. Grade level: 7 and up. 182 pages.

A Friendship for Today by Patricia C. McKissack (Scholastic)
In 1955 suburban St. Louis, Rosemary, the lone black child in her newly integrated classroom, forms an unlikely friendship with Grace, the polio-stricken class bully. Grade level: 4–6. 174 pages.

The Home-Run King written by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Gordon C. James (Viking)
In this fourth installment of McKissack’s Scraps of Time series, Gee tells her grandchildren the story (set in 1937 Nashville) of a signed Josh Gibson baseball. Grade level: 2–5. 92 pages.

Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters written by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Andre Carrilho (Schwartz & Wade/Random)
Ten original trickster stories are creatively contextualized, and embellished with grandly melodramatic black-and-white illustrations. Grade level: 1–5. 147 pages.

Sallie Gal and the Wall-a-Kee Man written by Shelia P. Moses, illustrated by Niki Daly (Scholastic)
Eight-year-old Sallie Gal struggles with the values her proud mother has instilled when she accepts longed-for ribbons from the Wallace Company salesman before she’s finished earning the money to pay for them in this Vietnam-era family tale. Grade level: 2–5. 152 pages.

47 by Walter Mosley (Little)
A science fiction thriller inspired by the slave legend of High John the Conqueror and set in the antebellum south. Grade level: 4–6. 232 pages.

Street Love by Walter Dean Myers (Amistad/HarperCollins)
Romeo and Juliet is transported to modern-day Harlem in this meticulously lyrical, accessible verse novel that free-flows through an array of perspectives Grade level: 7 and up. 134 pages.

Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic)
First-person narration alternates with letters and other communications to relate Private Robin Perry’s experiences in Iraq from February 2003 onward in this companion to Fallen Angels. Grade level: 7 and up. 288 pages.

All of the Above by Shelley Pearsall (Little)
A group of inner-city middle-school students and their disillusioned math teacher try to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by building a giant tetrahedron. Grade level: 4–8. 243 pages.

After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)
In 1994, the lives of two black girls, growing up in Queens as close as sisters, are dominated by the legal troubles of Tupac Shakur and the arrival of a mysterious girl named D in their neighborhood. Grade level: 6–8. 152 pages.

Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)
Eleven-year-old Lonnie Collins Motion’s letters to his younger sister, Lili, continue the story begun in Locomotion of his life with a new foster family and his development as a poet. Grade level: 4–6. 136 pages.

Poetry
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies & Little Misses of Color written by Elizabeth Alexander and Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Wordsong/Boyds Mills)
Two dozen sonnets describe the little-known historical episode of Miss Crandall’s School, created by a Quaker who defied the citizens of her time to teach African American girls in 1930s Canterbury, Connecticut. Grade level: 5–8. 48 pages.

Bronzeville Boys and Girls written by Gwendolyn Brooks, illustrated by Faith Ringgold (Amistad/HarperCollins)
Brooks’s classic anthology, illustrated anew for the first time in fifty years, evokes the children of 1956 Chicago minus anachronism, with still-resonant poems and energetic acrylic-and-marker paintings. Grade level: 1–5. 48 pages.

Let It Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals selected and illustrated by Ashley Bryan (Atheneum)
Cut-paper and swirling, vivid colors illustrate the hopeful strains of “This Little Light of Mine,” “Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In,” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” Grade level: K–3. 48 pages.

Jabberwocky illustrated by Christopher Myers (Jump/Hyperion)
Myers relocates Lewis Carroll’s classic nonsense poem to a city basketball court where an unnamed African American hero faces a fearsome trio of ace players. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

The Freedom Business written by Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Deborah Dancy (Wordsong/Boyds Mills)
Nelson partners the 1798 autobiography of Venture Smith, a slave who grew up to be a slave-owner, with her poems inspired by particular moments from Smith’s life. Grade level: 7 and up. 72 pages.

A Wreath For Emmett Till written by Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Philippe Lardy (Houghton)
Interlaced sonnets commemorate Emmett Till, the young victim of a 1955 hate crime. Grade level: 7 and up. 340 pages.

Keeping the Night Watch written by Hope Anita Smith, illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Holt)
After his father returns, C.J. chronicles the difficult trajectory from abandonment to forgiveness in this verse portrait of a family's rebirth. Grade level: 4–6. 74 pages.

The Blacker the Berry written by Joyce Carol Thomas, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Amistad/Cotler/HarperCollins)
This collection of poems about varying skin tones of African Americans encourages children of all races to embrace the skin they’re in. Grade level: K-3. 32 pages.

Nonfiction
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

Race: A History Beyond Black and White by Marc Aronson (Seo/Atheneum)
Ambition and imagination animate this rousing history of racism and its antecedents that, while focusing on anti-Semitism and discrimination against blacks, explores various forms of prejudice from ancient Sumer to the Rodney King beating and beyond. Grade level: 7 and up. 314 pages.

York's Adventures with Lewis and Clark: An African American's Part in the Great Expedition by Rhoda Blumberg (HarperCollins)
The focus on Clark's illiterate slave adds an unusual perspective to this expeditionary account. Grade level: 4–6. 88 pages.

The Champ: The Story of Muhammad Ali written by Tonya Bolden, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Knopf)
A well-documented illustrated biography from his boyhood as Cassius Clay to his recent human rights campaigns. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman (Holiday)
Balanced but impassioned, this is an expertly paced presentation of one of the defining episodes in the fight for racial equality. Grade level: 4–8. 114 pages.

John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement written by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson, illustrated by Benny Andrews (Lee & Low)
Based on an interview and the Georgia congressman’s writings, this biopic tracks Lewis’s life from student organizing to the 1964 Selma-on-Washington march and its aftermath. Grade level: 1–4. 40 pages.

A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968 by Diane McWhorter (Scholastic)
A fluid history of the movement's principal actors, events, and social context. Grade level: 4–6. 160 pages.

Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told written by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Bonnie Christensen (Amistad/Collins/HarperCollins)
This picture book biography details the life of the iconic crusader against lynching, conveying time and place through well-chosen details. Grade level: 1–4. 40 pages.

Jazz written by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Christopher Myers (Holiday)
An extended jam session of form-hopping poems and expressive acrylic paintings depict historical moments, great musicians, and various forms and instruments within the genre. Grade level: 4–6. 48 pages.

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Jump/Hyperion)
Nelson pairs an easygoing conversational tone with dramatic oil paintings (mostly larger-than-life portraits) to bring the history of Negro League baseball to life. Grade level 4–6. 88 pages.

Ain’t Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry written by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson (National Geographic)
Illuminating the mystery of history, Nelson follows clues, from song lyrics to census data, engineering reports, and prison records, in search of the truth about a folk hero who originated during the racial injustice of the 1870s. Grade level: 4–6. 64 pages.

Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum written and illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker (Schwartz & Wade)
A lightly fictionalized first-person text introduces Tatum as a toddler who, nearly blind from birth, is fascinated by the sounds and smells around him, and tracks the development of his musical gift as he grows up. Grade level: 1–5. 40 pages.

Free at Last!: Stories and Songs of Emancipation written by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Candlewick)
Tribute to the African American experience from 1863 to 1954 featuring historical vignettes and summaries, poems, and songs. Grade level: 4–6. 48 pages.

Nobody Gonna Turn Me ’Round: Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement written by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Candlewick)
Pivotal events of the 1950s and 1960s are recalled in songs, poems, and vignettes, deftly contextualized and powerfully illustrated. Grade level: 4–8. 64 pages.

The School is Not White!: A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement written by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Curtis James (Jump/Hyperion)
Eleven years after Brown v. the Board of Education, eight siblings are enrolled in a previously all-white school. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Twelve Rounds to Glory written by Charles R. Smith, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Candlewick)
This biography of Muhammad Ali showcases the myth over the man with a rhyming text that extols the greatness of the Greatest. Grade level: 6–8. 80 pages.

Nothing but Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson written by Sue Stauffacher, illustrated by Greg Couch (Knopf)
This spirited, personality-centered picture-book biography of the first black tennis player to win Wimbledon concentrates on Gibson’s transformation from athletically gifted street tough to steely professional. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Holt)
Four-line stanzas detail the sounds and experiences that influenced young Coltrane, while mixed-media illustrations use abstract shapes and expressive colors to convey his music. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez (Walker)
This dramatic biography of a man whose achievements were downplayed by a country blinded by racism progresses from Henson’s early years through his work with Admiral Peary and his involvement in Peary’s famed 1909 North Pole expedition. Grade level: 1–5. 32 pages.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Jump/Hyperion)
This poetic retelling of Tubman’s role as an Underground Railroad conductor combines with larger-than-life illustrations to portray the spiritual life of the visionary leader. Grade level: K–3. 48 pages.

Dizzy written by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Levine/Scholastic)
The rhyme, repetition, and unexpected line breaks of this unorthodox picture-book biography reflect the musical style of the be-bop innovator and jazz great. Grade level: K–3. 48 pages.

Muhammad Ali: Champion of the World written by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Francois Roca (Schwartz & Wade)
Winter borrows — quite ingeniously — from Genesis to bring to life this picture-book account of Muhammad Ali’s boxing career, including his conversion to Islam, outspokenness against racism, and refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

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