AGES 9-12 / GRADES 4-5

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…

Chris Crowe (A) and Tim Okamura (ILT)

List Price: $5.99 (Paperback – Fictionalized True Story / Emmett Till – 2002)

Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black teenager from Chicago, was unused to the mores of the segregated South. While visiting his uncle in the summer of 1955, he allegedly made flirtatious remarks…

Tonya Bolden (A) and Ansel Pitcairin (ILT)

List Price: $13.99 (Paperback – African American History / Heroes -2005)

This is a stunningly beautiful book consisting of portraits-in pictures and words-of twenty outstanding African-Americans. The individuals range from historical to contemporary figures, such as the dancer Judith Jamison, and represent diverse…

When it was released in 2004, Harlem Stomp! was the first trade book to bring the Harlem Renaissance alive for young adults!

Meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated, the book is a veritable time capsule packed with poetry, prose, photographs, full-color paintings, and reproductions of historical documents. Now, after more than…

Discover the inspiring true story of extraordinary professional cyclist Major Taylor in this nonfiction picture book from Coretta Scott King Award winners Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome.

In 1891, Marshall Taylor could ride his bike forward, backward, even perched on the handlebars. When his stunts landed him a job at the famous…

Cheryl Hudson (A) and Erin K.Robinson

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – African American Women Leaders – 2020)

Published in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, discover over fifty remarkable African American women whose unique skills and contributions paved the way for the next generation of young people. Perfect for…

Megan Stine (A) and John O’Brien (ILT)

List Price: $5.99 (Paperback – Biography / First Lady – 2014)

Born into a close knit family inChicago, Michelle Robinson was a star student who graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law. Then in 1992, she married another promising young lawyer and the rest, as they say,…

Alicia D. Williams (A) 

List Price: $17.99 ( Hardcover / Teen Racism and Abusive Family – 2019)

This deeply sensitive and powerful debut novel tells the story of a thirteen-year-old who must overcome internalized racism and a verbally abusive family to finally learn to love herself.

There are ninety-six things Genesis hates about…

This newly updated and extended version of…

Walter Dean Myers (A), Leonard Jenkins (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography / Leader / Revolutionary – 2003)

“I believe in recognizing every human being
as a human being, neither white, black, brown, nor red.”

This was just one of the messages that Malcolm X brought to people of…

Nico Medina (A) Who HQ and Gregory Copeland (ILT)

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Biography / Legendary Singer – 2018)

There is only one QUEEN OF SOUL!  Discover why Aretha Franklin garners so much R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Aretha Franklin is a musical and cultural icon who created an amazing legacy spanning six decades! Born in…

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.…

Edited By Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson + Many Creative Voices

List Price: $16.99 (Hardcover – Anthology of Black Life – 2021)

In the stunning follow-up to The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth, award-winning Black authors and artists come together to create a moving anthology collection celebrating Black love, Black creativity, Black resistance,…

Epic Athletes: Serena Williams is an inspiring middle-grade biography of the most celebrated women’s tennis player ever from acclaimed sports journalist Dan Wetzel!

Featuring comic-style illustrations by Sloane Leong!

Serena Williams is no stranger to overcoming obstacles. From growing up in a tough neighborhood to combatting racism to weathering severe health issues,…

Jason Reynolds (A) 

List Price: $7.99  (Paperback  – Track & Field, Friendships and Winning – 2017)

A National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature.
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Ghost wants to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school track team, but his…

Kathryn Erksine (A) and Charly Parker (ILT)

List Price: $22.50 (Hardcover – South Africa / Singer / Activist – 2017)

Miriam Makeba, a Grammy Award–winning South African singer, rose to fame in the hearts of her people at the pinnacle of apartheid―a brutal system of segregation similar to American Jim Crow laws. Mama…

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (A) and R. Gregory Christie (ILT)

List Price: $19.99  (Library Binding – Biography Law Enforcement / U.S. Marshall – 2009)

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Trevor Noah (A) 

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – Entertainer / BiRacial / Memoire – 2020)

The host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, shares his personal story and the injustices he faced while growing up half black, half white in South Africa under and after apartheid in this New York Times bestselling young readers’ adaptation of…

This is the story of LeBron James and his social justice work.

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…

Michelle Y. Green (A), Kadir Nelson (ILT), Mamie Johnson (Introduction)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Biography / Female / Sports / Negro Leagues / Pitcher – 2004)

Motivated by her love for the game and inspired by the legendary Jackie Robinson, Mamie Johnson is determined to be a professional baseball pitcher.…

Sharon M. Draper (A) Jesse Joshua Watson (ILT)

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Adventure / Space Mission – 2011)

The Clubhouse kids compete for a big prize—and make some creative moves—in this repackaged and talent-filled tale from bestselling author Sharon Draper. 

Ziggy, Jerome, Rashawn, and Rico are sure they’re going…

Jewell Parker Rhodes (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Family / Katrina Tragedy / Survival – 2012)

Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. She doesn’t have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she…

Vashti Harrison (A and ILT)

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…

Bonnie Bader (A) and Nancy Harrison (ILT)

List Price: $5.99 (Paperback – Biography / Preacher and Civil Rights Leader  – 2007)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was only 25 when he helped organize <span…

Leon is an ordinary kid who becomes extraordinary when he fights a supervillain to save his school!

In the city where Leon lives, superheroes — and supervillains — are commonplace. So how does an ordinary kid like Leon, who has no superpowers himself, become the superhero he wants to be? When all his…

The whole world seems to transform during the summer of 1965, when Eden’s cousin from Mississippi comes to visit her in L.A. just as the Watts Riots erupt, in this stirring new novel by Coretta Scott King Honor winner Brenda Woods.

When Eden’s cousin Winter comes for a visit, it turns out he’s not…

Dr. Mae Jemison (A)

A Collection of Moments in Dr. Mae’s Life

List Price: $23.95 (Hardcover – First Black Astronaut- 2021)

“The writing sings” says Publisher’s Weekly in this “inspiring autobiography.” Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, is truly a modern hero with a remarkable, inspirational story to tell.

…

Pusch Commey (A) and Innocent Dembetembe (ILT)

List Price:  $19.99 (Paperback – African Kings and Queens – 2014)

Volume one of 100 GREAT AFRICAN KINGS AND QUEENS chronicle the amazing exploits of 10 extraordinary monarchs of the African continent. Spanning over…

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…

Lamar Giles (A)

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…

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…

Ta-Nehisi Coates (A) and Chris Sprouse  (ILT)

List Price: $15.99 (Paperback – Graphic Novel / Black Super Hero – 2017)

Dark times for the Black Panther, as Ta-Nehisi Coates chronicles the fi nal days of the kingdom of Wakanda! As Zenzi and the People poison Wakanda’s populace against their king, a cabal of…

Help kids grow their executive functioning skills with activities for ages 6 to 9

Executive functioning is the name for the skills we use to pay attention, complete tasks, and remember important things. But that’s a lot for a brain to do every day―especially for kids. TheExecutive Functioning Workbook for Kids helps them train…

Another powerful story in the Logan Family Saga and companion to Mildred D. Taylor’s Newbery Award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

With the depression bearing down on her family, there isn’t much that Cassie Logan can count on anymore. 

But there is one thing that hasn’t changed—the whispering trees outside…

The third installment of the action-packed Future Hero series–perfect for younger fans of Black Panther!

Jarell answered the call of his ancestors and proved that he’s a worthy defender of the kingdom of Ulfrika. But with time running out, will he find the tools he needs to defeat the evil wizard?

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,…

Jamia Wilson (A) and Andrea Pippins (ILT) 

List Price:  $23.99 (Hardcover –  Biographies / Black Movers and Shakers –  2019)

“…to be revisited again and again…The candy-colored pages and straightforward stories are hard to resist…” –The New York Times

“…diverse collection of iconic figures…vibrantly illustrated…beautifully crafted volume…” –Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“…exuberant…exquisitely designed…a…

Ellen Morgan (A) and Stephen Marchesi (ILT)

List Price: $5.57 (Paperback – Biography / Religious Icon – 2015)

This fascinating addition to the best-selling Who Was…? series does not settle questions of theology. Instead, it presents young readers with a biography that covers what is known historically about Jesus and places in his…

Unlock your inner hero!

Jarell has accepted his destiny as the savior of Ulfrika. But when he’s summoned back to the kingdom through the magical portal in his cousin’s barbershop, he finds it in even greater danger than when he left. A powerful god has put the inhabitants of Ulfrika in peril, and the only…

Walter Dean Myers (A) and Bonnie Christensen (ILT)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Activist – Journalist/ Exposed Lynching – 2008)

Ida B. Wells was an extraordinary woman. Long before boycotts, sit-ins, and freedom rides, Ida B. Wells was hard at work to better the lives…

The code isn’t all it’s cracked up to…

Tiki & Ronde Barber with Paul Mantell (A)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Sports / Jr. High Football / Siblings / Teamwork and Perseverance – 2007)

Tiki and Ronde twelfth summer is winding down — the nights are getting shorter and the evenings cooler. That means two things: The first day…

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…

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…

Barbara Kramer (A) and Who HQ and Dede Putra (ILT) 

List Price: $5.99 (Paperback –  Biography  – Entertainer /  Movie Mogul Extraordinaire – 2019) 

The story of how a young Southern girl who was raised on a pig farm became one of the most influential and inspiring people in the world.

We all know Oprah…

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…