#africanamerican #childrens #childrensnonfiction #picturebook

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Illinois

This powerful picture book introduces young readers to a key event in the struggle for Civil Rights. Winner, Coretta Scott King Honor Award.

In 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, thousands of African American children volunteered to march for their rights after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak. They protested the laws that kept black people separate from white people. Facing fear, hate, and danger, these children used their voices to change the world.

Frank Morrison's emotive oil-on-canvas paintings bring this historical event to life, while Monica Clark-Robinson's moving and poetic words document this remarkable time.

I couldn't play on the same playground as the white kids. 

I couldn't go to their schools.  

I couldn't drink from their water fountains.  

There were so many things I couldn't do.

Let the Children March

5baffc83-c681-4e74-a5d3-69e0347c9955-1

Naima Coster

New York

When a county initiative in the Piedmont of North Carolina forces the students at a mostly black public school on the east side to move across town to a nearly all-white high school on the west, the community rises in outrage. For two students, quiet and aloof Gee and headstrong Noelle, these divisions will extend far beyond their schooling. As their paths collide and overlap over the course of thirty years, their two seemingly disconnected families begin to form deeply knotted, messy ties that shape the trajectory of their lives. On one side of the school integration debate is Jade, Gee's steely, single, black mother, grieving for her murdered partner, and determined for her son to have the best chance at a better life. On the other, is Noelle's enterprising mother, Lacey May, who refuses to see her half-Latina daughters as anything but white. The choices these mothers make will resound for years to come. And twenty years later, when Lacey's daughters return home to visit her in hospital, they're forced to confront the ways their parents' decisions continue to affect the life they live and the people they love. WHAT'S MINE AND YOURS is a sweeping, rich tapestry of familial bond and identity, and a sharp, poignant look at the ways race affects even the closest of relationships. This is not just one love story, but many: It's the all-consuming volatile passion of young lovers and the quieter comfort of steady companionship; it's the often tenuous but unbreakable bond between siblings; and it's the unconditional love that runs between parent and child and encompasses adoration, contempt and forgiveness. With gorgeous prose, Naima Coster explores the unique organism that is every family: what breaks them apart and how they come back together.

What's Mine and Yours

644211a3-9732-4d3e-b44a-b18594baed15-1

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

New Jersey

In Send Her Back and other stories, Munashe Kaseke offers an awfully intimate, fresh telling of the immigrant experience of black women in the United States. Equally awash with the joys of exploring a new world as well as a myriad of challenges, her complicated, and often tangled, female Zimbabwean protagonists navigate issues of identity, microaggressions, and sexism in vibrant, indelible settings. Yet again, these are not only stories of navigating an at times tense US political climate, they are also marked by characters who rise to the top of their professional fields, seize the American dream, and travel the world in glee. Kaseke peels back on the inner wranglings of characters caught between two worlds, be it by stories of dating outside one's culture and race or failing to assimilate upon returning home after spending time abroad. Uncanny. Witty. Gripping. Send Her Back and other stories dazzles, leaving you newly awakened to the world we live in.

Send Her Back and Other Stories

6f8c61ec-8183-4593-9f98-b9244bca6121-1

Leesa Cross-Smith

This is a new book that got squished and misshapen. See the photos. 

Virginia

A Novel

From the award-winning Southern writer who Roxane Gay calls "a consummate storyteller" comes a cathartic novel about the life-changing weekend shared between two strangers: a therapist and the man she prevents from ending his life. On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing on the side of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett. Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. But what she doesn't realize is that he's not the only one who needs healing -- and she's not the only one with secrets. Alternating between Tallie and Emmett's perspectives as they inch closer to the truth of what brought Emmett to the bridge's edge -- as well as the hard truths Tallie has been grappling with in her own life -- This Close to Okay is a vibrant, powerful story of two strangers brought together by wild chance at the moment they needed each other most.

This Close to Okay

df86de7e-a33a-411c-9d18-27556dee299a-1

Mary Hoffman

Some wear on corners. Old library marks. Significant signs of use on pages. Please see images.

Texas

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.

Amazing Grace

32d22db7-027a-407f-b577-84074332f377-1

Ayana Mathis

Colorado

Traces the story of Great Migration-era mother Hattie Shepherd, who in spite of poverty and a dysfunctional husband uses love and Southern remedies to raise nine children and prepare them for the realities of a harsh world. A first novel.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

31e77304-e08a-47fb-bef3-8a5c2d6472b2-1

Robert Jones, Jr.

Pennsylvania

Finalist for the National Book Award Instant New York Times Bestseller "May this book cast its spell on all of us, restore to us some memory of our most warrior and softest selves." —The New York Times Book Review “A new kind of epic...A grand achievement...While The Prophets' dreamy realism recalls the work of Toni Morrison...its penetrating focus on social dynamics stands out more singularly.” —Entertainment Weekly A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master's gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel's love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation's harmony. With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr., fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.

The Prophets

7183afdc-4f70-491b-913f-1f26355349bc-1

Ntozake Shange

Old library stamp on inner cover. Otherwise, mint book.

Multiple starred reviews greeted this amazing collaboration between Ntozake Shange and Kadir Nelson. As Booklist put it: "Poet and painter have joined forces to offer an indelible, emotional expression of the strength, beauty, and joy of one woman's character."

Celebrated poet and playwright Ntozake Shange captures the spirit of Civil Rights pioneer Coretta Scott King in this picture book biography gorgeously illustrated by Caldecott Medal artist Kadir Nelson. 

Walking many miles to school in the dusty road, young Coretta Scott knew the unfairness of life in the segregated south. A yearning for equality began to grow. 

Together with Martin Luther King, Jr., she helped lead change through nonviolent protest. It was the beginning of a journey--with dreams of freedom for all.

Coretta Scott

fd9d1a11-1ec5-4079-822e-90e449770119-1

Michigan

Wiley and the Hairy Man

#exlibrary #africanamericans #unitedstates #bookertwashington #educators #hardcover 

Educator

Knowing the need for education among his people, Booker T. Washington, a former slave, dedicated himself to that cause.

Booker T. Washington

1ac5777a-7f28-44a4-8738-d2f1bd8e1170-1

#hardcover #africanamericans #novel #delightful 

Oklahoma

A modern look at romance, friendship, and family follows the story of Bebe, a fortysomething bank supervisor and recent college graduate, and her best friend, Sandy, a young radio executive

Bebe's by Golly Wow!

c092af6b-de56-4040-b8d4-052aced176b9-1

#hardcover #fiction #youngadult #youngadultfiction #thehateugive #africanamericans #ya #blm 

8 starred reviews ∙ William C. Morris Award Winner ∙ National Book Award Longlist ∙ Printz Honor Book ∙ Coretta Scott King Honor Book ∙ #1 New York Times Bestseller! "Absolutely riveting!" —Jason Reynolds "Stunning." —John Green "This story is necessary. This story is important." —Kirkus (starred review) "Heartbreakingly topical." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A marvel of verisimilitude." —Booklist (starred review) "A powerful, in-your-face novel." —Horn Book (starred review) Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. And don't miss On the Come Up, Angie Thomas's powerful follow-up to The Hate U Give.

The Hate U Give (little annotation)

27d52d4a-c164-4226-8690-5e844f161c86-1

#hardcover #fiction #youngadult #youngadultfiction #africanamericans #thehateugive #ya #blm 

The Hate U Give

Renee Watson

California

A timely and powerful story about a teen girl striving for success in a world that too often seems like it's trying to break her.

Piecing Me Together

54b32580-ea6b-421c-b7b9-0ebbdf8548c2-1

Florida

Conjure Women

New (still in shrinkwrap) 
Hardcover

From 1951 until 1974, Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia was the site of thousands of experiments on prisoners conducted by researchers under the direction of University of Pennsylvania dermatologist Albert M. Kligman. While most of the experiments were testing cosmetics, detergents, and deodorants, the trials also included scores of Phase I drug trials, inoculations of radioactive isotopes, and applications of dioxin in addition to mind-control experiments for the Army and CIA. These experiments often left the subject-prisoners, mostly African Americans, in excruciating pain and had long-term debilitating effects on their health. This is one among many episodes of the sordid history of medical experimentation on the black population of the United States.

The story of the Holmesburg trials was documented by Allen Hornblum in his 1998 book Acres of Skin. The more general history of African Americans as human guinea pigs has most recently been told by Harriet Washington in her 2007 book Medical Apartheid. The subject is currently a topic of heated public debate in the wake of a 2006 report from an influential panel of medical experts recommending that the federal government loosen the regulations in place since the 1970s that have limited the testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates.

Sentenced to Science retells the story of the Holmesburg experiments more dramatically through the eyes of one black man, Edward “Butch” Anthony, who suffered greatly from the experiments for which he “volunteered” during multiple terms at the prison. This is not only one black man’s highly personal account of what it was like to be an imprisoned test subject, but also a sobering reminder that there were many African Americans caught in the viselike grip of a scientific research community willing to bend any code of ethics in order to accomplish its goals and a criminal justice system that sold prisoners to the highest bidder.


Sentenced to Science 

Arkansas

Angie Thomas

Amandla Stenberg

Mildred D. Taylor

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Young Cassie Logan endures humiliation and witnesses the racism of the KKK as they embark on a cross-burning rampage, before she fully understands the importance her family attributes to having land of their own.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

29e003b9-6441-4a19-af5b-2794e92215ce-1

Chinua Achebe

The contemporary African writer's classic novel depicting the destruction of traditional tribal life by the white man

Browse by categories

Save this search

Monica Clark-Robinson; Frank Morrison (Illustrator)

Let the Children March

Naima Coster

What's Mine and Yours

Kaseke Munashe

Send Her Back and Other Stories

Leesa Cross-Smith

This Close to Okay

Mary Hoffman

Amazing Grace

Ayana Mathis

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

Robert Jones, Jr.

The Prophets

Naima Coster

What's Mine and Yours

Mary Hoffman

Amazing Grace

Ntozake Shange

Coretta Scott

Molly Garrett Bang

Wiley and the Hairy Man

Alan Schroeder; Coretta Scott King (Introduction by); Nathan I. Huggins (Editor)

Booker T. Washington

Yolanda Joe

Bebe's by Golly Wow!

Angie Thomas; Nikki Giovanni (Foreword by)

The Hate U Give (little annotation)

Angie Thomas; Nikki Giovanni (Foreword by)

The Hate U Give

Renee Watson

Piecing Me Together

Afia Atakora

Conjure Women

Allen M. Hornblum

Sentenced to Science

Leesa Cross-Smith

This Close to Okay

Angie Thomas; Amandla Stenberg

The Hate U Give

Leesa Cross-Smith

This Close to Okay

Mildred D. Taylor

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart

Angie Thomas; Amandla Stenberg

The Hate U Give