AGES 9-12 / GRADES 4-5

Monica Brown (A) and Rafael Lopez (ILT) 

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Musician / Drummer – 2013)

In this vibrant bilingual picture book biography of musician Tito Puente, readers will dance along to the beat of this mambo king’s life. Tito Puente loved banging pots and pans as a child, but what he really…

Montdrew Dunham (A)

List Price $7.99 (Paperback – Biography / First Black Supreme Court Justice -1998)

Whenever Thurgood Marshall got into trouble at school, the principal would make him sit in the basement and read the U.S. Constitution. By the time he was 12, he had most of it memorized and his interest…

Ruby Bridges (A)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Civil Rights Activist – 2020)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges—who, at the age of six, was the first black child to integrate into an all-white elementary school in New Orleans—inspires readers and calls for action in this moving…

Christopher Paul Curtis (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Fiction / Family / Segregation-2000)

The Newbery Honor-winning American classic, The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963, celebrates 20 years with this anniversary edition featuring a special letter from Christopher Paul Curtis and an introduction by noted educator Dr. Pauletta Bracy.

Enter the hilarious world of…

Jean Merrill (A)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – Toothpaste Inventor  – 2006)

Sixth-grader Rufus Mayflower doesn’t set out to become a millionaire. He just wants to save on toothpaste. Betting he can make a gallon of his own for the same price as one tube from the store, Rufus develops a step-by-step…

David Barclay Moore (A)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Community / Navigating Thru Challenges -2017)

“The right story at the right time. . . . It’s not just a narrative; it’s an experience. It’s the novel we’ve been waiting for.” —The New York Times

A boy tries to steer a safe path through the…

Rachelle Burke (A) 

List Price $6.99 (Paperback – Biography / Gymnastics Star -2021)

Simone Biles has been called the greatest gymnast of all time, winning five Olympic and 25 World Champion medals by age 22. Before she wowed the world with her incredible gymnastics skills, Simone was an energetic young girl who dreamed of becoming…

Walter Dean Myers (A)

List Price : $7.99 (Paperback – Teen Fiction / Western Adventure / Friendship and Revenge – 1994)

Fifteen-year-old Artemis journeys from New York City to Tombstone, Arizona, in 1882, to avenge the murder of his uncle.

Andrea Davis Pinkney (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Africa / Sudan / Refugee – 2016)

The powerful story of one girl’s triumphant journey, inspired by true tales of life in Sudan — now in paperback.

Life in Amira’s peaceful Sudanese village is shattered when Janjaweed attackers arrive, unleashing unspeakable horrors. After losing…

Kekla Magoon (A)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Friendship Story – 2018) 

★ An Amazon Best Children’s Book of the Year selection
Meet Caleb and Bobby Gene, two brothers embarking on a madcap, heartwarming, one-thing-leads-to-another adventure, for fans of As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds, Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina, Front Desk by Kelly Yang, and One…

David Anthony Durham (A) 

List Price: $21.95 (Hardcover – Fantasy / Sci Fi / Conflict- 2021)

In this middle grade solar punk novel set in an alternate Egyptian universe, twelve-year-old Ash must compete to become the Shadow–and protector–of the prince.

FIVE DEADLY TESTS, ONLY ONE SHADOW PRINCE

Growing…

Tim Crothers (A) 

List Price: $16.00 (Paperback – Uganda / Chess Champion – 2016)

Now a major motion picture starring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo, directed by Mira Nair.

The “astonishing” (The New York Times Book Review) and “inspirational” (Shelf Awareness) true story of Phiona Mutesi—a teenage chess prodigy…

Elzabeth Acevedo (A) 

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Poetry / Finding Her Voice – 2018)

National Book Award and Golden Kite Honor Award Winner!

Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her…

Virginia Hamilton (A) and Diane Dillon and Leo Dillon (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Teen Fiction / Friendship / Drama – 2006)

Junior Brown, an overprotected three-hundred pound musical prodigy who prone to having fantasies, and Buddy Clark, a loner who lives by his wits…

Virginia Hamilton (A)  and Leo and Dianne Dillon (ILT)

List Price: $13.00 (Paperback – African American Folklore -1993)

Many of the stories in this collection were told among slaves as they dreamt of freedom or remembered their lives in Africa. Hamilton focuses on several themes-animal tales, magical and supernatural tales, and tales of…

Varian Johnson (A) 

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Mystery Fortune – 2018)

A Coretta Scott King Author Honor and Boston Globe / Horn Book Honor winner!

“Powerful…. Johnson writes about the long shadows of the past with such ambition that any reader with a taste for mystery will appreciate the puzzle Candice and…

Kofi A. Annan (A), Dudley J. Thompson (A) and Barrington A. Watson (ILT)

List Price: $15.00 (Paperback – Biographies / Pan Africanists – 2005)

This book celebrates the lives of seventeen Black leaders who have made outstanding contributions to the liberation, unity and solidarity of Africa and African peoples throughout…

Brandy Colbert (A)

List Price: $16.99 (Hardcover – Mystery Journals / Friendship – 2021)

From award-winning YA author Brandy Colbert comes a debut middle-grade novel about the only two Black girls in town who discover a collection of hidden journals revealing shocking secrets of the past.

Beach-loving surfer Alberta has…

Christopher Paul Curtis (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Fiction / Depression Era / Family – 2013)

We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful” is the motto of Deza Malone’s family. Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, singled out by teachers for a…

C. Taylor-Butler (A) and Patrick Arrasmith (ILT)

List Price: $10.95 (Paperback – SCi Fi Thriller / Ancient Universe – 2016)

Five Friends . . . A Dangerous Game . . and the Truth About The Family Business.

Five friends are in a race against time in this action-adventure story involving ancient tribal artifacts…

Virginia Hamilton (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Teen Fiction / Mystery / Ancestor Ghosts – 2006)

The house held secrets, Thomas knew, even before he first saw it looming gray and massive on its ledge of rock. It had a century-old legend — two fugitive…

Ann Cameron (A)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Benin / Young Prince / Captured –  2000)

Kidnapped at the age of 11 from his home in Benin, Africa, Olaudah Equiano spent the next 11 years as a slave in England, the U.S., and the West Indies, until he was able to buy…

Lamar Giles (A)

Lamar Giles (A)

Lamar Giles (A)

James Pusch Comney (A)

List Price $15.99: (Paperback – African Kings and Queens – 2018)

For young children between the ages of 7 – 10, this beautifully illustrated book captures a panorama of African history through the eyes of ten illustrious monarchs. It spans 3000 years, from the Nile Valley across the whole of the…

Pablo Cartaya (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – A Protest Story / Finding Your Voice – 2018)

Save the restaurant. Save the town. Get the girl. Make Abuela proud. Can thirteen-year-old Arturo Zamora do it all or is he in for a BIG, EPIC FAIL? 

For Arturo, summertime in Miami means…

Kwame Alexander (A)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Breaking Rules and Consequences -2014)

2015 Newbery Medal Winner
2015 Coretta Scott King Honor Award Winner
New York Times Bestseller 

“With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I’m delivering,“…

Ramona T. Nickens (A) and Yvetta Doll Franklin (A) and Tammy Artis (ILT)

List Price: $12.00 (Paperback – Friendship / Communication / Slang vs Standard English – 2012)

A tender naive friendship is challenged when both girls become valedictorian candidates. One young girl emulates street talk and the other articulates Standard…

William Kamkwamba (A) and Bryan Mealer (A)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover) – Malawi / Young Inventor – 2014)

The New York Times bestselling memoir of the heroic young inventor who brought electricity to his Malawian village adapted for young readers. Now available in paperback!

When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba’s tiny village…

Joyce Carol Thomas (A) and Floyd Cooper (ILT)

List Price: $16.99 (Hardcover – Poems / African American Identity – 2008)

We are color struck
The way an artist strikes
His canvas with his brush of many hues
Look closely at these mirrors
these palettes of skin
Each color is rich
in its own…

Nikole Hannah Jones (A) and Renee Watson (A) and Nikkolas Smith (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Retells The Journey of An Enslaved People to the US – 2021)

The 1619 Project’s lyrical picture book in verse chronicles the consequences of slavery and the history of Black resistance in the United States, thoughtfully rendered…

Chrystal D. Giles. (A)  

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Community and Gentrification – 2021)

“This book made me want to step aside, hand over the mic, and listen to Wes. A must-read.” –Mariama J. Lockington, author of For Black Girls Like Me

Brand-new kicks, ripped denim…

Jason Reynold (A)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Track and Field / Competition – 2019)

Sunny tries to shine despite his troubled past in this third novel in the critically acclaimed Track series from National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds. 

Ghost. Patina. Sunny. Lu. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds, with personalities that…

Jewell Parker Rhodes (A)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Plantation / Friendship – 2014)

Ten-year-old Sugar lives on the River Road sugar plantation along the banks of the Mississippi. Slavery is over, but laboring in the fields all day doesn’t make her feel very free. Thankfully, Sugar has a knack for finding her…

Kari Cornell (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography / Science – Urban Biologist- 2016 )

After earning degrees studying animal behavior, Danielle Lee wanted to share her love of science with young people. Through urban outreach she has brought budding scientists into professional labs. She’s walked them through the steps of the…

Allison Lassieur (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography / Science – Astronaut – 2016 )

While watching Star Trek on television as a child, Mae Jemison was certain she would one day visit space.  Then she became the first black female NASA astronaut. Find out how Jemison’s passion for science…

Laura Hamilton Waxman (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography / Science – Aerospace Engineer – 2015) 

Have you ever built a cool science project? In middle school, Aprille Ericsson won second place in a science fair. She knew she wanted to keep creating amazing science projects. As an adult, she became an…

Margot Lee Shettterly (A) 

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – Biography / Science – Aerospace Engineer – 2015) 

This inspiring biography tells the story of Katherine Johnson, an African American mathematician. An inspiring figure in the history of STEM, she eventually worked on the mission to send a man to the moon.  Her story…

Rick Bowers (A) 

List Price: $16.95  (Hardcover – African American History / Civil Rights Era / White Supremacy – 2010) 

The Spies of Mississippi is a compelling story of how state spies tried to block voting rights for African Americans during the Civil Rights era. This book sheds new light on one of…

Jayson Reynold (A), Ibram X. Kendi (A)Sonja Sheryll-Paul (Adapter) & Rachelle Baker (ILT)

List Price: $15.99 (Hardcover – Racism  and Antiracism for Youth – 2021)

This chapter book edition of the groundbreaking #1 bestseller by luminaries Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds is an essential introduction to the history of racism and antiracism in America<br…

Louisa Jagger (A) and Shari Becker (A) and  Floyd Cooper (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – First Black Pilot to Fly Across the USA – 2021)

The inspirational and true story of James Herman Banning, the first African American pilot to fly across the country, comes to life in this picture book biography…

Various Authors and Tom Feelings (EDIT) and ILT)

List Price: $8.99  (Paperback – Poetry / African American – 1999)

Artist Feelings invited poets whom he admired to compose original, short verses for these drawings, with breathtakingly rich and powerful results. Together they created a tribute to African-American creativity, the collection…

Renee Watson (Author)

List Price $16.99 (Hardcover – A Novel About Family And Forgiveness – 2019)

From Newbery Honor- and Coretta Scott King Author Award-winning, New York Timesbestselling author Renée Watson comes a heartwarming and inspiring novel for middle schoolers about finding deep roots and exploring the past, the present, and the places that make…

Eve Bunting (A) and Chris K. Soentpiet (ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Japanese Family / Internment Memories – 2009)

Laura Iwasaki and her family are paying what may be their last visit to Laura’s grandfather’s grave. The grave is at Manzanar, where thousands of Americans of Japanese heritage were interned during…

Walter Dean Myers (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Teen Fiction / Gangs / Drugs / Relationships – 1995)

Lately everybody is messing with Jamal. His teachers, the kids at school, even his dad. And now that Jamal brother Randy in the slam, Crazy Mack has a crazy idea. He wants…

Mildred D. Taylor (A)

List Price: $9.99. (Paperback – Logan Family Saga #2 – 1976)

With the land to hold them together, nothing can tear the Logans apart. Why is the land so important to Cassie family? It takes the events of one turbulent year – the year of the night…

Eden Royce (Author)

List Price: $16.99 (Hardcover – A Story of Love, Bravery and Friendship – 2021)

“A poignant, necessary entry into the children’s literary canon, Root Magic brings to life the history and culture of Gullah people while highlighting the timeless plight of Black Americans. Add in a fun,…

Farrah Gray with Fran Harris

List Price:$14.99 (Paperback / Self Help and Improvement / Teen Success Story – 2005)

A remarkable teenager who went from public assistance to a million dollar net worth shares his story and offers 9 key principles to success.

Farrah Gray is no ordinary teenager. He wears a suit…