Children’s Literature by Black Authors
A selection of books by Black authors and Illustrators for children of all ages
Audiobooks
Audiobooks
Hidden Figures : The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space
Child nonfiction book, e-book, audiobook on cd, e-audiobook. Young readers' edition. Hidden Figures recalls America's greatest adventure and NASA's groundbreaking successes through the experiences of five spunky, courageous, intelligent, determined, and patriotic women: Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and Gloria Champine. Moving from World War II through NASA's golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women's rights movement, Hidden Figures interweaves a history of scientific achievement and technological innovation with the intimate stories of five women whose work forever changed the world -- and whose lives show how out of one of America's most painful histories came one of its proudest moments. Age: 8-12.
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Audiobooks
To Be a Slave
Child nonfiction book, and e-audiobook. A compilation, selected from various sources and arranged chronologically, of the reminiscences of slaves and ex-slaves about their experiences from the leaving of Africa through the Civil War and into the early twentieth century. Age: 10+
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Audiobooks
Henry’s Freedom Box
Child picture book, and print with audio. 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. Age: 4-8.
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Audiobooks
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March
Child nonfiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. A 50th-anniversary tribute shares the story of the youngest person to complete the momentous Selma to Montgomery March, describing her frequent imprisonments for her participation in nonviolent demonstrations and how she felt about her involvement in historic Civil Rights events. Age: 12-17.
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Audiobooks
Going Down Home with Daddy
Child picture book, e-audiobook, and e-video. Alan looks forward to the annual family reunion at the farm where Daddy grew up, but everyone is supposed to share something special and Alan worries about arriving with empty hands. Age: 5-8.
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Audiobooks
The Season of Styx Malone
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Caleb Franklin and his younger brother, Bobby Gene, spend an extraordinary summer with their new, older neighbor, Styx Malone, a foster boy from the city. Age: 9-12.
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Audiobooks
Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Seventh-grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm. But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up and steals Eddie's notebook. Tristan chases after it, and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a Bottle Tree. In a last attempt to get it away from the creature, Tristan punches the tree, accidentally ripping open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters. Tristan finds himself in the middle of a battle that has left black American folk heroes John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. In order to get back home, Tristan and these new allies will need to entice the god Anansi, the Weaver, to come out of hiding. Can Tristan save this world before he loses more of the things he loves? Age: 8-12.
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Audiobooks
Bad Boy : A Memoir
E-book, and e-audiobook. A memoir of the African American who grew up listening to stories and who carries on the storytelling tradition in his numerous and award-winning books. Age: 12+
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Audiobooks
Looking Like Me
Child picture book, and audiobook on cd with print book. Jeremy sets out to discover all of the different "people" that make him who he is, including brother, son, writer, and runner. Age: 5-9.
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Audiobooks
Blue Sky White Stars
Child picture book, e-book, and audiobook on CD. Wonderfully spare, deceptively simple verses pair with richly evocative paintings to celebrate the iconic imagery of our nation, beginning with the American flag. Each spread, sumptuously illustrated by award-winning artist Kadir Nelson, depicts a stirring tableau, from the view of the Statue of Library at Ellis Island to civil rights marchers shoulder to shoulder, to a spacecraft at Cape Canaveral blasting off. Age: 4-7.
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Audiobooks
Heart and Soul : The Story of America and African Americans
Child nonfiction book, and e-audiobook. A simple introduction to African-American history, from Revolutionary-era slavery up to the election of President Obama. Includes a timeline. Age: 9-12.
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Audiobooks
Ghetto Cowboy
Child fiction e-book, and audiobook on CD. Twelve-year-old Cole's behavior causes his mother to drive him from Detroit to Philadelphia to live with a father he has never known, but who soon has Cole involved with a group of African-American "cowboys" who rescue horses and use them to steer youths away from drugs and gangs. Age: 10+
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Audiobooks
Bein' With You This Way
Child picture book. Audiobook on cd narrated in Spanish. A playground rap that introduces young readers to how people are different yet the same. Age: 5-8.
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Audiobooks
The Red Pencil
Child fiction book, and e-audiobook. “After her tribal village is attacked by militants, Amira, a young Sudanese girl, must flee to safety at a refugee camp, where she finds hope and the chance to pursue an education in the form of a single red pencil and the friendship and encouragement of a wise elder."-- Provided by publisher. Age: 10-13.
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Audiobooks
A Good Kind of Trouble
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. After attending a powerful protest, Shayla starts wearing an armband to school to support the Black Lives Matter movement, but when the school gives her an ultimatum, she is forced to choose between her education and her identity. Age: 8-12.
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Audiobooks
Ghost
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. First book in the Track series. “Ghost, a naturally talented runner and troublemaker, is recruited for an elite middle school track team. He must stay on track, literally and figuratively, to reach his full potential."-- Provided by publisher. Age: 10-13.
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Audiobooks
Look Both Ways : A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. “A collection of ten short stories that all take place in the same day about kids walking home from school."-- Provided by publisher. Age: 10-14.
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Audiobooks
Ghost Boys
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. “After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till."-- Provided by publisher. Age: 10+
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Audiobooks
The Hero Two Doors Down : Based on the True Story of Friendship between a Boy and a Baseball Legend
Child fiction book, and e-audiobook. Eight-year-old Steve Satlow is thrilled when Jackie Robinson moves into his Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1948, although many of his neighbors are not, and when Steve actually meets his hero he is even more excited--and worried that a misunderstanding over a Christmas tree could damage his new friendship. Age: 8-10.
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Audiobooks
Betty before X
Child fiction book, and e-audiobook. Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement. Age: 10-14.
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Audiobooks
Black Panther : The Young Prince
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. “He felt the mesh of the Vibranium under his fingertips, smooth yet hard at the same time. It almost seemed like it pulsed. Like it wanted to be worn. ‘This is the suit of the Black Panther,’ T'Challa whispered. ‘The suit of my father and his father before him’. He let the fabric fall from his hands and unfurl toward the floor. ‘I have to do this,’ he said. ‘I have no choice.’” Age: 8-12.
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Audiobooks
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters : An African Tale
Child picture book, and e-audiobook. Mufaro's two beautiful daughters, one bad-tempered, one kind and sweet, go before the king, who is choosing a wife. Age: 3-8.
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Audiobooks
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Child fiction book, e-book, audiobook on cd, and e-audiobook. Part of the Logan Family Saga. A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand. Age: 10-13.
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Audiobooks
Schomburg : The Man Who Built a Library
Child nonfiction, e-audiobook, and video on DVD. Traces legal clerk Arturo Schomburg's efforts to curate a collection of African books, letters, music, and art. Age: 9-12.
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Audiobooks
Genesis Begins Again
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Thirteen-year-old Genesis tries again and again to lighten her black skin, thinking it is the root of her family's troubles, before discovering reasons to love herself as is. Age: 9-13.
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Audiobooks
One Crazy Summer
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp. Age: 8-12.
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Audiobooks
The Unsung Hero of Birdsong USA
Child fiction book, and audiobook on CD. Gabriel, twelve, gains new perspective when he becomes friends with Meriwether, a Black World War II hero who has recently returned to the unwelcoming Jim Crow South. Age: 10+
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Audiobooks
Brown Girl Dreaming
Child nonfiction book, e-book, audiobook on cd, and e-audiobook. In vivid poems that reflect the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, an award-winning author shares what it was like to grow up in the 1960s and 1970s in both the North and the South. Age: 10+
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Audiobooks
Harbor Me
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. When six students are chosen to participate in a weekly talk with no adults allowed, they discover that when they're together, it's safe to share the hopes and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world."-- Provided by publisher. Age: 10-13.
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Audiobooks
The Day You Begin
Child picture book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Other students laugh when Rigoberto, an immigrant from Venezuela, introduces himself but later, he meets Angelina and discovers that he is not the only one who feels like an outsider. Age: 4-7.
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Audiobooks
My life As an Ice Cream Sandwich
Child fiction book, e-book, and audiobook on CD. In the summer of 1984, twelve-year-old Ebony-Grace of Huntsville, Alabama, visits her father in Harlem, where her fascination with outer space and science fiction interfere with her finding acceptance. Age: 10+
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eBooks
eBooks
Booked
Child fiction book, e-book, audiobook on cd, and e-audiobook. Twelve-year-old Nick loves soccer and hates books, but soon learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Age: 10-15.
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eBooks
The Crossover
Child fiction book, e-book, e-audiobook, and graphic novel. Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. Age: 10-15.
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eBooks
The Undefeated
Child nonfiction book, and e-book. “The Newbery Award-winning author of The Crossover pens an ode to black American triumph and tribulation, with art from a two-time Caldecott Honoree"-- Provided by publisher. Age: 8-11.
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eBooks
The King of Kindergarten
Child picture book, and e-book. Instilled with confidence by his parents, a young boy has a great first day of kindergarten. Age: 3-7.
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eBooks
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality
Child nonfiction book, and e-book. “In 1956, one year before federal troops escorted the Little Rock 9 into Central High School, fourteen year old Jo Ann Allen was one of twelve African-American students who broke the color barrier and integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee. This is the heartbreaking and relatable story of her four months thrust into the national spotlight and as a trailblazer in history. Based on original research and interviews and featuring backmatter with archival materials and notes from the authors on the co-writing process."-- Provided by publisher. Age: 10-12.
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eBooks
Imani's Moon
Child picture book, and e-book. Little Imani of the Maasai people longs to do something great, like touching the moon, but the other children just laugh at her. Age: 5-8.
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eBooks
Freedom over Me : Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life
Child nonfiction book, e-book, and DVD. "Using original slave auction and plantation estate documents, contrasts the monetary value of a slave with the priceless value of life experiences and dreams that a slave owner could never take away."-- Provided by publisher. Age: 9+
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eBooks
Infinite Hope : A Black Artist’s Journey from World War II to Peace
Child nonfiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Artist Ashley Bryan's experience as a Black soldier in the segregated army of WWII.” —Provided by publisher. Age: 9-11.
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eBooks
Hurricane Child
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Born on Water Island in the Virgin Islands during a hurricane, which is considered bad luck, twelve-year-old Caroline falls in love with another girl--and together they set out in a hurricane to find Caroline's missing mother. Age: 8-12.
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