AGES 9-12 / GRADES 4-5

Frederick Douglass (A)

List Price: $6.00 (Paperback – Autobiography / Former Slave / Self Taught / Abolitionist – 1995)

Former slave, impassioned abolitionist, brilliant writer, newspaper editor and eloquent orator whose speeches fired the abolitionist cause, Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) led an astounding life. Physical abuse, deprivation and tragedy plagued his early years, yet…

Jerry Craft (A) 

List Price: $15.99 (Paperback – 7th Grade / New School – 2019)

Winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature!

Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school…

 The Manifestor of Prophecy Book 1 

Internationally bestselling superstar author Angie Thomas makes her middle grade debut with the launch of an inventive, hilarious, and suspenseful new contemporary fantasy trilogy inspired by African American history and folklore.

It’s not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool—like getting a pet…

The highly anticipated sequel to the instant #1New York Times bestseller Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy—a boldly original and suspenseful fantasy adventure by one of the most popular and imaginative voices of this generation, Angie Thomas.

All of Nic’s dreams have come true. After years of living…

Traci Todd (A) and Christian Robinson (ILT)

List Price $18.99 (Hardwood – Singer / Pianist / Activist – Civil Rights – 2021)

This illuminating and defining picture book biography illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Christian Robinson, tells the story of little Eunice who grew up to become the acclaimed singer Nina Simone and her…

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…

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…

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…

Praised as “a story of perserverance and love” in a starred review by Kirkus, here is a story about keeping dreams alive.

Onyx lives with his mother, who is showing signs of early-onset dementia. He doesn’t want to bring attention to his home — if Child Protective Services finds out, they’ll put him into foster…

Fans of the Netflix reboot of The Babysitters Club will delight as four new sisters band together in the heart of New York City. Discover this jubilant novel about the difficulties of change, the loyalty of sisters, and the love of family from a prolific award-winning author.   “[A]…

The Operation Sisterhood series continues as the four sisters decide to put on a community musical! The creative sister Sunday is the director and writer, but she has lost her spark. Can she find her shine again before everyone calls it quits?

“This ode to Black girlhood and the communities that serve them offers…

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,…

Jason Reynold (A)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Track and Field / Competition – 2018)

l to National Book Award Finalist Ghost and a New York Times bestseller

A newbie to the track team, Patina must learn to rely on her teammates as she tries to outrun her personal demons in this follow-up…

Paul Von Blum (A) and Elizabeth Von Notias & Ramsess (ILT)

List Price:$16.99 (Paperback – Biography / Activist / Singer/ Actor / Athlete – 2013)

Paul Robeson, despite being one of the greatest Renaissance figures in American history, still remains in relative anonymity. An exceptional scholar, lawyer, athlete, stage and screen actor, linguist,…

Jacqueline Woodson (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Foster Siblings – 2010)

The stunning companion to the National Book Award finalist–from a four-time Newbery Honor winning author

Twelve-year-old Lonnie is finally feeling at home with his foster family. But because he’s living apart from his little sister, Lili, he decides it’s his…

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…

Sherri Winston (A)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – 6th Grade President / Book 2 -2015)

Brianna Justice is determined to raise enough money for the big class trip to Washington, D.C., but she’s up against a lot: classmates…

A riveting story with a dollop of southern gothic appeal.” – Booklist

Ike Pressure is an Army brat.

Which, if you ask him, is not an insult.

His mom’s new job is in Mercury, Nevada, on a secretive military base close to Area 51. What’s more, his childhood friend, Eesha Webb, and her family are…

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…

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,…

Gregory Zuckerman (A) and Gabriel and Elijah Zuckerman (A)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – Women In Sports – 2018)

Bold the power of women! These are the inspirational real-life stories of female superstar athletes Serena and Venus Williams, Simone Biles, Carli Lloyd, and more — role models all. For sports fans, aspiring athletes and…

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,…

New York Times bestselling author Jerry Craft is back with the newest adventures of Jordan, Drew, Liam, and all the characters that fans first met in New Kid, winner of the Newbery Award and the Coretta Scott King Author Award!

In this…

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…

Samhita Arni (A) and Mona Chirakar (ILT) 

List Price: $24.95  (Hardcover –  India / Graphic Novel / War /  A  Woman’s Opinion -2011)

The Ramayana is an epic poem by the Hindu sage Valmiki, written in ancient Sanskrit sometime after 300 BC. It is an allegorical story that contains important Hindu teachings, and it…

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…

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…

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…

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…

After twelve-year-old aspiring superstar, Sparkle Moore, is diagnosed…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Marne Ventura (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography / Science – Astro Physicist and Space Advocate – 2014)                                               

“Have you ever stared into the night sky, full of stars…

This newly updated and extended version of…

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…

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…

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…

From Homecoming to the Halftime Show (workbook)

Which HBCUs have veterinary programs?  What percent of Black federal judges attended an HBCU?  Which HBCU offers Swahili classes?

Which Wimbledon tennis champion attended an HBCU?  With more than 100 HBCUs in existence, there’s so much to learn about Black…

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…

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…

From the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winning author Kwame Alexander, comes the first book in a searing, breathtaking trilogy that tells the story of a boy, a village, and the epic odyssey of an African family.

In his village in Upper Kwanta, 11-year-old Kofi loves his family, playing oware with his grandfather and swimming in…