ART, DANCE, MUSIC AND POETRY

This stunning children’s book from the photographer behind the Instagram sensation Brown Girls Do Ballet, combines irresistible photos of young ballerinas of color with inspirational text that empowers all children to express their true selves through movement and music.

When TaKiyah Wallace-McMillian went to enroll her three-year-old daughter into her first ballet class,…

A picture book biography about the barber shop of woodcarver Elijah Pierce, recipient of the highest folk art honor in the United States.

“Creeeeak!” goes the screen door to self-taught artist Elijah Pierce’s barbershop art studio. A young boy walks in for an ordinary haircut and walks out having discovered a lifetime of art.

…

Belinda Rochelle (A)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – African American Poetry and Art – 2000)

This stunning collection pairs twenty poems by distinguished African-American poets with twenty works of art by acclaimed African-American artists, in a way that has never been done before. Poets and artists span…

Yona Zeblis McDonough (A) and John OBrien (ILT) and Nancy Harrison (ILT)

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Biography / Musician / Trumpet – 2004)

If not for a stint in reform school, young Louis Armstrong might never have become a…

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.…

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…

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…

Laban Carrick Hill (A) and Theodore Taylor III (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover –  Biography / Music / Hip Hop Era – 2013)

Before there was hip hop, there was DJ Kool Herc.

On a hot day at the end of summer in 1973 Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party at a park…

Michale Mahin (A) and Jose Ramirez (ILT) 

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Legendary Rock Musician  – 2018)

Winner of a Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor and a Robert F. Sibert Honor!

Celebrate music icon Carlos Santana in this vibrant, rhythmic picture book from the author of the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book Muddy: The Story…

Wade and Cheryl Hudson and Various Amazing Authors, Illustrators and Poets

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Anthology of Poetic Advice to Children – 2018)

Fifty of the foremost diverse children’s authors and illustrators–including Jason Reynolds, Jacqueline Woodson, and Kwame Alexander–share answers to the question, “In this divisive world, what shall we tell our…

Tyler Gordon (A and ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Picture Book / Young Artist / Portraits -2021)

“When I was born, the doctors told my mom that if I did survive I would have lots of health problems and be blind, deaf and severely mentally delayed . . . Boy were they wrong!”…

Ty rocks out with friends in this new book in the Geisel Honor–winning series!

Join Ty on his imaginative adventures in Ty’s Travels: Showtime, a My First I Can Read story by acclaimed author and illustrator team Kelly Starling Lyons and Niña Mata. Music, imagination, and play are highlighted, making this perfect for sharing…

Troy Andrews (A) and Bryan Collier (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Musician Bio – 2015)

“Winner of both a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award, this beautiful picture book for older kids is an inspirational look at overcoming our circumstances to follow our dreams, in this case that of a young musician…

Jacob Hoye (A)

List Price:$30.00 (Paperback – Biography / Hip Hop Artist / Rapper – 2006)

Capturing as never before the matchless passion and searing honesty of the late Tupac Shakur, the brilliant young rapper, actor, and poet who was mysteriously gunned…

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…

Public Domain, E.B.. Lewis (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Song / African American Spiritual – 2005)

A great visual interpretation of a a popular African-American spiritual. It is morning when the book opens, and readers are greeted by a smiling boy. Throughout the day, he spreads his own special…

Nikki Giovannni (A), Tupac Shakur (A) and Leila Steinberg (Photo)

List Price: $16.00 (Paperback – Poetry / Hip Hop – 1999)

His talent was unbounded, a raw force that commanded attention and respect. His death was tragic — a violent homage to the power of his voice.…

Nina Crews (A) and (PHOTO)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Poetry – 2003)

Every day, children the world over sing, shout, and celebrate Mother Goose rhymes. And now there a new reason to cheer: Nina Crews has added her own remarkable, jazzy style of illustration to a collection of forty-one…

Daphne Muse (A), Charlotte Riley-Webb (ILT), and Charlotte Riley-Webb (ILT)

List Price: $16.95 (Hardcover – Poetry / Harlem Renaissance – 2005)

A remarkable and much-needed collection for the youngest lovers of poetry, Entrance Place of Wonders: Poems of the Harlem Renaissance features poems from the leaders of this cultural movement…

Langston Hughes (A)

List Price:$11.99 (Paperback – Poetry / Harlem Renaissance – 1996)

Illustrated in black-and-white. This classic collection of poetry is available in a handsome new gift edition that includes seven additional poems written after The Dream Keeper was first published. In a larger format, featuring Brian Pinkney’s scratchboard art on every…

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…

Whoopi Goldberg (A) and Deborah Underwood (ILT)

List Price: $10.99 (Paperback – Dance / Ballet / Lead Dancer – 2022)

The sixth book of the award-winning and bestselling Sugar Plum Ballerinas series by Whoopi Goldberg—now featuring brand-new illustrations!

At the Nutcracker School of Ballet in Harlem, young dancers learn to chassé, plié, and…

George Gershwin (A) and Mike Wimmer (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback / Plantation Life – 2002)

This lavish picture book is based on the beloved folk opera Porgy and Bess features Wimmer lush, epic oil paintings which reveal a vision of plantation life that extends the lyrics of this enormously popular…

Whoppi Goldberg (A) and Deborah Underwood (ILT)

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Ballet / Friendship / Honesty / Materialism and Forgiveness.- 2022)

The second book of the award-winning and bestselling Sugar Plum Ballerinas series by Whoopi Goldberg—now featuring brand-new illustrations!

At the Nutcracker School of Ballet in…

Whoppi Goldberg (A), Deborah Underwood (A) and Marilyn Roos (ILT)

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Dance – Ballet / Finding Support – 2009)

The third book of the award-winning and bestselling Sugar Plum Ballerinas series by Whoopi Goldberg—now featuring brand-new illustrations!

Perfectionist Jerzey Mae desperately wants to…

Whoppi Goldberg (A) and Deborah Underwood (ILT)

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Dance / Ballet / Performance Problems  – 2022)

The fourth book of the award-winning and bestselling Sugar Plum Ballerinas series by Whoopi Goldberg—now featuring brand-new illustrations!

At the Nutcracker…

Whoppi Goldberg (A) and Deborah Underwood (ILT)

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Dance / Ballet / Stage Fright)

The first book of the award-winning and bestselling Sugar Plum Ballerinas series by Whoopi Goldberg—now featuring brand-new illustrations!

Alexandrea Petrakova Johnson does not want to…

Whooppi Goldberg (A) and Deborah Underwood (ILT)

List Price: $11.99 (Paperback – Dance / Ballet / Stage Fright – 2011)

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…

This groovy, bebopping, music picture book biography chronicles legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins’s search for inspiration on the Williamsburg Bridge after quitting the jazz scene in 1959.

Rollins is one of the most prolific sax players in the history of jazz, but, in 1959, at the height of his career, he vanished from the…

Laurie Calkhoven (A) and Monique Dong (ILT)

List Price: $4.99 (Paperback – Biography / Ballet Dancer – 2016)

Pirouette across the stage and get to know Misty Copeland—the first African-American woman to become…

Carole Boston Weatherford (A) and Frank Morrison (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Soul Singer / Queen of Soul – 2020)

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustration Award! From a New York Times bestselling author and an acclaimed illustrator comes this vibrant portrait of Aretha Franklin that pays her the R-E-S-P-E-C-T this…

Javaka Steptoe (A)

Davida Adedjouma (EDITOR), Gregory Christie (ILT), Lucille Clifton (INTRO)

List Price: $11.95 (Paperback – Poetry / Children – 2003)

Through poetry, African children celebrate what it means to by Black. By way of a series of workshops in the inner city the editor was able to stimulate children to express their joys, frustrations…

Olugbemisola  Rhuday-Perkovich (A)

List Price: $16.99  (Hardcover – Sister Girl Band – 2023)

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…

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…

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…

National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine teams up with Keith Henry Brown on this lyrical picture book that celebrates music and Black identity.

Trevor’s dad is a DJ, and he always picks the best music—
tunes jivin’, beat drivin’, high fivin’!
—he’s DJ Dap Daddy!

But after his parents split up…

From bestselling, award-winning creators Renée Watson and Bryan Collier comes a stunningly crafted picture book chronicling the life of poet and activist Maya Angelou.

This unforgettable picture book introduces young readers to the life and work of Maya Angelou, whose words have uplifted and inspired generations of readers. The author…

Langston Hughes (A) and Sean Qualls (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Lullaby Poem / Langston Hughes – 2013)

Description: “My little dark baby, / My little earth-thing, / My little love-one, / What shall I sing / For your lullaby?” With a few simple words as smooth as a song, the poet…

Tony Medina (A) and R. Gregory Christie (ILT)

List Price: $10.95 (Paperback – Biography / Langston Hughes -2006)

Fourteen original poems offer young readers an exciting glimpse into the life of Langston Hughes, one of America most beloved poets. Each of Medina engaging poems explores…

Katheryn-Russell-Brown (A) and Fran Morrison (ILT)

List Price: $18.95 (Hardcover – Biography / Music / Trombone / Loved Music – 2014)

Melba Doretta Liston loved the sounds of music from as far back as she could remember. As a child, she daydreamed about beats and lyrics, and hummed along with the music from…

Maya Angelou (A) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (ILT) and Sara Jan Boyers (A)

It’s a sunny spring day, and the tic tac tic tac sound of jump ropes hitting the ground floats through the wind.

“Jump in!”

Everyone lines up for a turn. The Delancy twins, double dutch divas. Leroy Jones with the hip-hop tricks. Even Ms. Mabel, showing the youngstas how it’s done. And after a…

Brenda C. Roberts (A), Frank Morrison (A) and (ILT)

List Price: $16.99 (Hardcover – Dancing / Friends – 2004)

Jazzy Miz Mozetta is the winner of the 2005 Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe New Talent Award

One fine evening, Miz Mozetta puts on her firecracker-red dress and heads outside to enjoy the…

Jarrett Dapier (A) and Eugenia Mello (ILT) 

List Price: $17.99  (Hardcover – Jazz Greats – 2021)

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…

Walter Dean Myers (A) and Christopher Myers (ILT) 

List Price:  $18.95 (Hardcover – Jazz Poetry – 2008)

There’s a crazy syncopation /and it’s tearing through the nation / and it’s bringing sweet elation / to every single tune./ It’s Jazz
 
Fifteen poems, infused with the rhythm and…

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (A) and Christopher Myers (ILT)

List Price: $18.95 (Hardcover – Bio / Artist / Harlem Renaissance – 2015)

Jake Makes a World follows the creative adventures of the young Jacob Lawrence as he finds inspiration in the vibrant colors and characters of his community in Harlem. From his mother’s apartment, where he…