AGES 9-12 / GRADES 4-5

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…

Rita Williams-Garcia (A)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – Series Book 2 / Fiction / Siblings / Family – 2013)

Rita Williams-Garcia much-anticipated middle-grade novel P.S. Be Eleven, winner of Coretta Scott King Award, is the sequel to her New York Times bestseller One Crazy Summer,…

Sharon Draper (A)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – BiRacial / Paralell World / Self Discovery – 2018)

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s blended family is more divided than ever in this thoughtful story about divorce and racial identity from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper.

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are…

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…

The first book in a fast-paced, witty, and bighearted debut Afrofantasy trilogy about a twelve-year-old apprenticing in the kitchens at the prestigious Academy of Shamans who must ally with a snarky goddess and a knife-wielding warrior to save her kingdom.

Perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers and The…

Life Skills for Kids is the perfect gift for boys and girls!

With the help of this guide, kids can learn foundation skills such as the basics in…

Lamar Giles (A)

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…

Jim Gigliotti (A) and Who HQ (A) and Stephen Marchesi (ILT) 

List Price: $6.50 (Paperback – Biography / Singer – 2018)

Discover more about Stevie Wonder, the music prodigy whose awards include 25 Grammy Awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Stevie Wonder is one of the most successful singer-songwriter-musicians of our time.…

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…

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…

Nikki Grimes (A) and Jerome LaGarrique (ILT)

List Price: $7.99  (Paperback – Poetry / Friendship / Mentor – 1999)

In 14 knowing, heartfelt poems, Nikki Grimes invites readers to witness the friendship that blossoms between Damon, an African-American boy without a father, and Blue, a tough-looking man who has lost…

This newly updated and extended version of…

Ronde Barber (A), Tiki Barber (A) and Paul Mantell (ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Series: Football / Identical Twins / New Coach / Team Spirit – 2008)

It Tiki and Ronde second year on their junior high school football team, the Hidden Valley Eagles. The eighth-grade season is here, and the boys…

Christopher Paul Curtis (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Fiction / Foster Child – 2004)

It 1936 Flint, Michigan during the Depression. Times may be hard, and 10-year-old Bud may be an orphan, but Bud got a few things going for him: 1. He has his own suitcase full…

A friendship hypothesis—and one failed experiment—leads one girl to investigate the science of middle school friendship makeups and breakups in this hopeful and heartwarming story from Tanita S. Davis, author of Partly Cloudy and Serena Says.

Rylee Swanson is beginning eighth grade with zero friends.

A humiliating moment at the end-of-seventh-grade pool party involving a…

Karen Callender (A)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Loss, Grief and Courage – 2020)

Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature!

Winner of the 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry!

In a small but turbulent Louisiana town, one boy’s grief takes him beyond…

Martha Freeman (A) and Katy Wu (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover –  Bios of 20 Female Scientists – 2020)

“An inspiring look at women who realized curiosity plus tenacity equals success.” —Kirkus Reviews
“[A] captivating compendium.” —Publishers Weekly

Discover the histories of twenty incredible female scientists in this inspiring biography…

Charles R. Smith Jr. (A) and Shane W. Evans (ILT)

List Price: $20.99 (Hardcover – History / 28 Important Days In History – 2015) 

Each day features a different influential figure in African-American history, from Crispus Attucks, the first man shot in the Boston Massacre, sparking the Revolutionary War, to Madame C. J. Walker, who…

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,…

A stunning repackage of a companion to Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, with cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor Award winner Kadir Nelson!

The son of a prosperous landowner and a former slave, Paul-Edward Logan is unlike…

Kyndle Serves Up History: An International Day Soul Food Journey is a middle-grade novel that follows Kyndle, a curious and thoughtful student preparing for his school’s International Day. When Kyndle struggles to explain the cultural origins of his family’s food, he embarks on a journey of discovery—guided by family conversations, historical research, and lived experiences—that…

Sherri Winston (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Friendship and Politics – 2012)

When Brianna Justice’s hero, the famous celebrity chef Miss Delicious, speaks at her school and traces her own success back to being president of her fifth grade class, Brianna determines she must do the same. She just knows that becoming…

Zona Zeldis McDonough (A) and Nancy Harrison (ILT)

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Biography / Conductor / Underground Railroad – 2002)

Born a slave in Maryland, Harriet Tubman knew first-hand what it meant to be someone’s property; she was whipped by owners and almost killed by an overseer. It was from other field…

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…

A “2020 NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People” Selection

A vibrantly illustrated and compelling collection of profiles about women and men who revolutionized politics, policy, commerce and activism.

You likely know that Barack Obama was the first African American president of the United States. And you…

Last Stop on Market Street gets a jazzy twist in this finger-licking good celebration of music, food, and family.

Struttin’ with Auntie Nina down to a club,
We’re gonna hear some music and then eat some grub.
Wanna get up close, but we’re…

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…

Rita Williams Garcia (A)

List Price: $9.99 ( Paperback – Series Book 1 / Fiction / Missing Parent / Summer Camp / Self Discovery – 2011)

Eleven-year-old Delphine has it together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago. Even though her father and…

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…

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

For David Logan, a time of distress means taking the higher road.

During a drought, the Logan family shares their well water with their neighbors, black and white alike. But David’s brother…

Nnedi Okorafor (A)

List Price: $11.99 (Paperback – Fantasy / Futuristic Africa / Price of Knowledge – 2015)

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy.…

Yona Zeldis McDonough (A) and Jim Eldridge (ILT)

List Price: $5.99 (Paperback – Biography / Evangelist / Feminist – 2015)

Almost 100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, Sojourner Truth was mistreated by a streetcar conductor. She took him to court–and won! Before she was Sojourner Truth, she…

Nikki Giovanni (A), Alicia Vergel de Dios (ILT), Damian Ward (ILT), Kristen Balouch (ILT), Jeremy Tugeau (ILT), Michele Noiset (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Book and CD / Poetry – 2008)

Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a celebration of poetry with a beat. It has both a book and CD…

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 up as an orphan in a remote village in the Egyptian desert, Ash’s life is pretty…

Gail Herman (A), Who HQ (A) and Gregory Copeland (ILT)

List Price: $5.99 (Paperback – Biography / Civil Rights Leader – 2017) 

The wife of Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King was a civil rights leader in her own right, playing a prominent role in the African American struggle for racial equality…

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

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Adventure / Lost In The Tunnel – 2011)

Ziggy, Rashawn, Jerome, and Rico — the Black Dinosaurs — are thrilled to discover that their hometown was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Even more exciting, their new…

Doreen Rappaport (A) and Shane W. Evans (ILT)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback- African American History / Civil Rights Era – 2006)

In the summer of 1955, Moses Wright braved mortal danger to testify against three white men accused of murdering Emmett Till – a brutal event that helped to spur the…

Kwame Mbalia (A) 

List Price:$17.99 (Hardcover – Fantasy, Action and Mythology – 2019) 

Coretta Scott Award Winner – Handpicked by Amazon kids’ books editor, Seira Wilson, for Prime Book Box – a children’s subscription that inspires a love of reading.

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.

…

Tiki Barber (A), Ronde Barber (A) and Paul Mantell (Contri)

Price: $7.99  (Paperback – Series / Sports / Football – Playoffs – 2013) 

The Hidden Valley Eagles have the championship in sight—but will chicken pox get in the way?

The Hidden Valley Eagles are on track to make the playoffs. Full of focus…

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

Member of the 2023 Notable Books for a Global Society (NGBS) List

From the beloved author of President of the Whole Fifth Grade, a story about a young Black girl who summons the courage to fight against a discriminatory dress…

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…

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,…

Tiki Barber (A), Ronde Barber (A), Paul Mantell (Contri)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Series / Sports/ Football – 2014)

The Hidden Valley Eagles have high hopes for the football championship in this novel from NFL superstars and bestselling authors Tiki and Ronde Barber.

Tiki and Ronde are ready to end junior high…

John Steptoe (A and ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover Fiction / African Folktale – 1987)

Mufaro was a happy man. Everyone agreed that his two daughters were very beautiful. Nyasha was kind and considerate as well as beautiful, but everyone — except Mufaro — knew that Manyara was selfish, bad tempered, and spoiled.

…

Mildred D.Taylor (A)

List Price: $10.99 (Paperback – Logan Family Saga #3 – 2016)

A stunning repackage of a companion to Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, with cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor Award winner Kadir Nelson!

It is a frightening and turbulent time for the Logan family. First, their friend…

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…