AGES 4-8 / GRADES K-3

The colors of Hispaniola burst into life in this striking, evocative debut picture book that celebrates the joy of being Dominican.

If Dominican were a color, it would be the sunset in the sky, blazing red and burning bright.
If Dominican were a color, it’d be the roar of the ocean…

Sandy Lynne Holman (A) and Lela Kometiani (ILT)

List Price: $18.95 (Hardcover – African Heritage / Racism and Prejudice – 1998)

An illustrated story of an African American boy who gains appreciation for his dark skin by learning about his African heritage from his grandfather and his drum. (32 pgs) Ages 5 -…

Derrick Barnes (A) and Gordon C. James (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Young Black Male Empowerment – 2020)

An upbeat, empowering, important picture book from the team that created the award-winning Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut

I am
a nonstop ball of energy.
Powerful and full…

Vashti Harrison (A and ILT)

Tiki Barber (A) and Ronde Barber (A) and Barry Root (Ilt)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Sports – Football – 2004)

Based on the childhood of NFL superstar twins Tiki and Ronde Barber both spokes people for Verizon Reads, a national program to promote literacy – this inspiring story, written along…

A lyrical and affirming ode to Black girls. An ideal next read for fans of I Am Enough and the perfect gift for mothers and daughters, baby showers, and graduation.

Be, Black Girl, Be

Breathe in your truth. And never let anyone dull your shine.

With poetic text and exuberant artwork, this book…

The inspirational true story of Ruby Bridges.

Please, God, try to forgive those people. Because even if they say those bad things, They dont know what theyre doing. This is the true story of an extraordinary 6-year-old who helped shape history when she became the first African-American sent to first grade in an…

Joanna Ho (A) and Dung Ho (ILT)

 List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Multicultural Bilingual – 2021)

This lyrical, stunning picture book tells a story about learning to love and celebrate your Asian-shaped eyes, in the spirit of Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry, and is a celebration of diversity.

A young…

In the spirit of Come With Me, this timely and charming tale about mask-wearing follows a little girl and her generous plan to find her own courage by helping those in her neighborhood find theirs.

In a changing world, little Sophie is feeling a bit worried.…

Monica Gunning (A) and Elaine Peddlar (ILT)

List Price $11.95 (Paperback -Homelessness / Mother and Daughter – 2013)

When her father died, Zettie and her mother left their warm and comfortable home in Jamaica for an uncertain future in the United Sates. Zetties mother cant find a steady job so they are forced…

Anne Grifalconi (A) and Kadir Nelson (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – African Village / Escape – 2004)

An inspiring tale of one girls struggle to preserve her peoples freedom. Young Abikanile and all of the villagers of Yao feel safe hidden deep within…

Mechal Renee Roe (A and ILT) 

List Price: $16.99  (Hardcover –  Hairstyles for Boys – 2020) 

Mechal Renee Roe, illustrator of Vice President Kamala Harris’s Super Heroes Are Everywhere, creates a joyful, positive, read-together book celebrating boys with natural black hair that will have kids everywhere chanting: “I am born to be awesome!”

When the stars shine, the…

Nikki Giovanni (A) and Ashley Bryan (ILT) 

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Poetry / The Importance of Being Loved – 2018)

Newbery Award honoree Ashley Bryan has hand-selected a dozen of National Book Award winner Nikki Giovanni’s poems to illustrate with his inimitable flourish.

There is nothing more important to a child than to feel…

Mary Kay Carson (A)

List Price: $19.99 (Paperback – African American History and Activity Book- 2008)

An Inspiring story of brave people and their lives

The heroic struggles of the thousands of slaves who sought freedom through the Underground Railroad are vividly portrayed in this powerful activity book, as are the abolitionists, free blacks, and…

Sheetal Sheth (A) and Jessica Blank (ILT)

List Price: $1995 (Hardcover – Two Cultures and A Girls Name – 2018)

Anjali and her friends are excited to get matching personalized license plates for their bikes. But Anjali can’t find her name. To make matters worse, she gets bullied for her “different” name,…

Pat Mora (A) and John Parra (ILT)

List Price: $18.95 (Hardcover – Giving Thanks – 2009)

In a series of poetic sentences, a young boy (biracial Mexican/Caucasian) tells about some of the everyday things for which he is thankful. Come share the joy, and think about all the things for which you can say,…

Meet Jelaya (jeh-LAY-uh.) She <span class="a-text-italic" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-family: 'Amazon Ember',…

Lora McClain-Muhammad (A) and Asia Lewis Ross (ILT) 

List Price: $10.00  (Paperback – Activity Book for Black Boys – 2019)

The much anticipated coloring book filled with all things about a Young Kings Greatness from A-Z! It was created after the overwhelming success of the girls coloring book, I Need You to Know The ABC’s…

Scott Reynolds Nelson (A) and Marc Aronson (A)

List Price: $18.95 (Hardcover – History / John Henry / Folk Hero – 2007)

Who was the real John Henry? The story of this legendary African-American figure has come down to us in so many songs, stories, and plays, that the facts are often lost.…

Black Hair Styles, Love and Black History 

A young girl learns to appreciate her curly, coarse hair by learning about the rich heritage of African and African American hairstyles from her grandmother.

Writer Danielle Joseph and illustrator Olivier Ganthier’s I Want to Ride the Tap Tap is a day-of-the-week picture book about a Black family who ride the taxi-bus service―called a tap tap―in Haiti, and the fascinating people they meet along the way, illustrated by a Haitian artist known for his vibrant…

Cynthia Levinson (A) and Vanessa Brantley-Newton (ILT)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Civil Rights / Protest – 2017)

Meet the youngest known child to be arrested for a civil rights protest in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963, in this moving picture book that proves you’re never too little to make a difference.

Nine-year-old Audrey Faye…

Alice Walker (A) and Queenbe Monyei (ILT)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Poetry – 2022)

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and activist Alice Walker invites readers young and old to see the world—and our place in it—through new eyes in this new edition featuring art from Queenbe Monyei.

With beautifully poetic…

Dk Publishing and Unicef (Photos)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Schools / Children / Around the Globe – 2016)

A mind-broadening journey to classrooms around the world, this unique celebration of the commonalities and differences between school days in different countries will enrich knowledge and delight imagination as kids share in the experiences…

John Steptoe (A) Clarita Kohen (ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – African Folklore / Two Sisters / Spanish Edition – 1997)

Mufaro has two beautiful daughters. Nyasha is kind and considerate, but Manyara is selfish and spoiled. When the king decides to choose a bride from among The Most Worthy…

Tami Charles (A) and Jacqueline Alcantara (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Haiti / Tradition / Family / Community -2019)

Join the celebration in the kitchen as a family makes their traditional New Year’s soup — and shares the story of how Haitian independence came to be.

The shake-shake of maracas vibrates down to my…

Tami Chalres (A) and Clare Almon (ILT) 

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – African American Trailblazer / US Postal Carrier – 2018)

A little-known but fascinating and larger-than-life character, Mary Fields is one of the unsung, trailblazing African American women who helped settle the American West. A former slave, Fields became the first African…

Get ready for the ride of your life, as The ABCs of Black Wall Street takes readers on a front-row, all-inclusive tour of Historically Black Colleges & Universities.

The ABCs of Black Wall Street Coloring Book takes readers on a nostalgic trip through the heart of Tulsa’s historic Greenwood District. From Madam…

Eloise Greenfield (A) and Leo and Diane Dillon (ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Poetry – 1986)

Love don’t mean all that kissing
Like on television
Love Means Daddy
Saying keep your mama company till I get back
And me doing it

Sixteen poems tell of love and…

From the Newberry Honor–winning author of Genesis Begins Again comes a shimmering picture book that shines the light on Zora Neale Hurston, the extraordinary writer and story catcher extraordinaire who changed the face of American literature.

Zora was a girl who hankered for tales like bees for honey. Now, her mama…

Before the Ships is a powerful and poetic celebration of the early roots of Black history. The great achievements and accomplishments across Africa prior to the Transatlantic slave trade are told through melodious text and evocative illustrations, that culminate into the strength and resilience of modern-day Black people.

For so many of us,…

From New York Times bestselling author Jemar Tisby, I Am the Spirit of Justice uses lyrical text and moving illustrations to take children on a journey through the history of the United States of America, highlighting the ways people have been fighting for justice from the very beginning.

The fight for civil rights in America…

Junot Diaz (A) and Leo Espinoza (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Family Remembering The Past / Home – 2018)

From New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz comes a debut picture book about the magic of memory and the infinite power of the imagination.

Every kid in Lola’s school was from…

Christine King Farris (A) and Chris K. Soentpiet (ILT) (A)

List Price: $19.95 (Hardcover – Martin Luther King / Family – 2005)

Long before he became a world-famous dreamer, Martin Luther King Jr. was a little boy who played practical jokes and made friends without any consideration to race. But growing…

Julie Stegemeyer (A) and E.B. Lewis (ILT)

List Price: $16.99 (Hardcover – Legendary African Trees – 1998)

Moyo and Japera travel down the red dusty road to the next village. There, they will gather under the baobab tree, the Tree of Life. Moyo knows that some days the market wagon stops under the…

Phil Bildner (A) and John Holyfield (ILT)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – African American History/Aviation – 2010)

The extraordinary story of James Banning, the first African-American pilot to fly across country

During the Great Depression, the ace black pilot James Banning decided to fly from coast to coast to serve as an…

Rachel Isadora (A and ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Classic Fairy Tale / Africentric Version – 2009)

This adaptation of the well-known Hans Christian Andersen tale of the princess and the pea gets new look and new audience. It begins with a setting in East Africa and a prince searching for a…

Carole Boston Weatherford (A) Eric Velasquez (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Black Library Pioneer and Historian – 2017) 

In luminous paintings and arresting poems, two of children’s literature’s top African-American scholars track Arturo Schomburg’s quest to correct history.

Where is our historian to give us our side? Arturo asked.

Amid the scholars, poets, authors, and…

A little girl makes sure she walks out of the barbershop rocking the fabulous hair style she chooses.

Learn the importance of speaking up for what you want through this fun and empowering picture book.

When a little girl walks into her local barbershop, she knows she wants the flyest, freshest fade on the…

For fans of Matt de la Pena and Grace Byers, My Afro Is a Rising Sun is a dazzling picture book inviting BIPOC children to fully express themselves, celebrate their Blackness, and embrace their ancestry. 

Black afros are more than just afros. They are a symbol of Black joy. They remind us to…

Alice Walker (A) and Stefano Vitale (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Poetry / Consequences of War – 2007

Though War is Old It has not Become wise. Poet and activist Alice Walker personifies the power and wanton devastation of war in this evocative poem. Stefano Vitale?s…

H. Chuku Lee (A) and Pat Cummings (ILT)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover (No Jacket Cover) – Fairy Tale 2014)

In this remarkable retelling of Beauty and the Beast, award-winning illustrator Pat Cummings creates an enchanted fairy-tale world flavored by the art, architecture, and culture of West Africa, while writer H. Chuku Lee stays…

Nikki Grimes (A) and E. B. Lewis (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Aviation Pioneer – 2002)

Learn how a young African-American woman living in an era of segregation achieved her dream of flying. When the Wright brothers took their historic flight, 11-year-old Bessie Coleman vowed to become…

Vashti Harrison (A and ILT) 

From the author of Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History comes the highly anticipated follow-up, a beautifully illustrated collectible detailing the lives of women creators around the world.

Featuring the true…

Laura Driscoll (A) and Jill Weber (ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Biography / Scientist – 2003)

Annie Marcus is just nuts about peanut butter! When Annie finds out that George Washington Carver was responsible for the popularity of peanuts, she picks him for her scientist report. Annie learns all…

Faith Ringgold (A and ILT)

A Pre-reading Development Agenda

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Pre-school Sight Words – 2004)

Join Cassie, the main character from the picture book Tar Beach, as she takes readers on a tour of her home, neighborhood, and school, introducing dozens of new words and their meaning. Young…

Jenny Lombard (A)

List Price $7.99 (Paperback – Teen Fiction / Friendship / Ethnic Background – 2006)

Drita and her family come to New York as refugees from war-torn Kosovo. Even though she barely speaks English, Drita can’t wait to start school and make a new…

Grace Byers (A) and Keturah A. Bobo (ILT)

List Price: $19.99  (Hardcover – Loving Oneself and Others/Self Respect and Self Esteem – 2017)

I Am Enough is the picture book everyone needs, and it’s now a New York Times bestseller!

This is a gorgeous, lyrical ode to loving who you are, respecting others, and being kind…