AGES 9-12 / GRADES 4-5

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…

Longlisted for the National Book Award

A tender-souled boy reeling from the death of his best friend struggles to fit into a world that wants him to grow up tough and unfeeling in this stunning illustrated middle grade novel in verse “full of vulnerability and hope” (Booklist, starred review) from the Newbery Honor–winning author of…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Zetta Elliott (A) and Shadra Strickland (ILT)

List Price: $13.95 (Paperback – Fiction / Grief and Loss / Mentoring / Art / Hope)

An urban African-American boy transcends the loss of loved ones with help from a caring elderly mentor and from the sustaining ability to create art. Bird looks back and remembers…

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…

Lisa Moore Ramee (A)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – 12 Year Old / Friendship -2019)

From debut author Lisa Moore Ramée comes this funny and big-hearted debut middle grade novel about friendship, family, and standing up for what’s right, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give<span…

Kristen Anderson (A)

List Price: $5.99  (Paperback – Vice President of The United States – 2021)

The inspiring story of Vice President Kamala Harris told in the new Who HQ NOW format for trending topics.

On November 7, 2020, Kamala Harris, a senator from California, became the first woman and the first…

Nikki Giovanni (A) and Ashley Bryan (ILT) 

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Poetry / The Importance of Being Loved – 2018)

Newbery Award honoree Ashley Bryan has hand-selected a dozen of National Book Award winner Nikki Giovanni’s poems to illustrate with his inimitable flourish.

There is nothing more important to a child than to feel…

Renee Watson (A) & Nina Mata (ILT)

List Price: $16.99 (Hardcover – A Young Girls World – 2020)

From Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Award winner Renée Watson, the first book in a young middle grade series about Ryan Hart, a girl who is pure spirit, kindness, and sunshine.

Ryan…

Leslie Youngblood (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback -Family Issues / Stress and Depression – 2019)

In this heartfelt middle-grade novel that “brims with charm and compassion” (Vashti Harrison, New York Times bestselling author of Little Leaders), eleven-year-old G-baby must bring her family together…

NIcole D. Collier (A)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – Needs to Break Out of Her Shell – 2023)

In this heartfelt middle grade novel…

Lilly Workneh (Edit /A) and Cashawn Thompson (For/A) Diana Odero (A) Justine Ware (A) and Sonia Thompson (A) and Annalisa Ventura and Others (ILT)

List Price: $35.00  (Hardcover – 100 Real Black Women Rebel Girls – 2021)

A PARENTS’ FAVORITE PRODUCTS TILLYWIG AWARD WINNER 2022

The fourth installment in the…

Angela Johnson (A)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Teen Fiction / Special Needs / Rare Skin Disease – 2003)

Born with a rare and dangerous allergy to sunlight, Lila’s spent her life hidden from the daylight-staying covered up and indoors until dark,…

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.…

American Medical Association and Amy B. Middleman (EDIT) and Kate Gruenwald Pfeifer (A)

List Price: $17.00 (Paperback – Teen Self Help / Boys / Puberty / Health – 2006)

Becoming a teen is an important milestone in every boy life. It even more important to get answers and advice to the…

American Medical Association and Amy B. Middleman (EDIT) and Kate Gruenwald (A)

List Price: $18.00 (Paperback – Teen Self Help / Girls / Puberty / Health – 2006)

Becoming a teen is an important milestone in every girl’s life. It?s even more important to…

Andrea Davis Pinkney (A) and Brian Pinkney (ILT)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – African American History / Free Black / Scientist Engineer / Genius – 1998)

Benjamin Banneker was born free when most blacks in this country were still enslaved. But it troubled him that not all blacks were not…

Jenny Lombard (A)

List Price $7.99 (Paperback – Teen Fiction / Friendship / Ethnic Background – 2006)

Drita and her family come to New York as refugees from war-torn Kosovo. Even though she barely speaks English, Drita can’t wait to start school and make a new…

Doreen Rappaport (A) and Charles Lilly (ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Slavery / Escape / Underground Railroad – 1998)

Eliza and her baby, running across the ice. Selena and Cornelia Jackson, masquerading as boys. Henry Box Brown, shipping himself north in a wooden crate. Jane Johnson, risking everything to testify against…

Robert Burleigh (A) and Stephen T. Johnson (ILT)

List Price: $7.00 (Paperback – Sports / Poetry / Basketball / Teamwork – 1997)

Illustrations and poetic text describe the movement and feel of the game of basketball. Hoops is not a book about basketball–Hoops is basketball. How it feels to be a…

Eloise Greenfield (A) and Leo and Diane Dillon (ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Poetry – 1986)

Love don’t mean all that kissing
Like on television
Love Means Daddy
Saying keep your mama company till I get back
And me doing it

Sixteen poems tell of love and…

Jayne Pettit (A)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Biography / Poet Activist – 1998)

Journey of the Heart is a biography about the life of Maya Angleou. In the book, the author, traces the now a prominent African American woman life from…

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…

Andrea Pinkney (A) and Stephen Alcorn (ILT)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – Biographies / Women Leaders / Activists – 2013)

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus and sparked a boycott that changed America. Harriet Tubman helped more than three hundred slaves escape the South on…

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…

Lesa Cline-Ransome (A) and James E. Ransome (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Sports / Cyclist – 2003)

Introduces the life of the African-American bicycle racer who won the 1899 World Championship title. He was famous for the color of his skin as he was for his indomitable…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

Kadir Nelson (A and ILT)

List Price: $21.99 (Hardcover – Sports / Negro League Baseball – 2008)

2010 Coretta Scott King Author Award and Illustrator Honor Award

We are the ship; all else the sea. Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League

The story of…

Kathryn Lasky (A) and Nneka Bennett (ILT)

List Price: $5.99  (Paperback – Biography / Entrepreneur / Cosmetics – 2000)

A biography of Sarah Breedlove Walker who, though born in poverty, pioneered her genius ideas in hair and beauty care products for black women, and became a great financial success. (48…

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…

Robert Edwards (A) and True Kelley (ILT)

List Price: $6.99 (Paperback – Biography / Egyptian / Pharaoh – 2006)

Ever since Howard Carter uncovered King Tutankhamun tomb in 1922, the young pharaoh has become a symbol of the wealth and mystery of ancient Egypt. Now, a…

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…

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…

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…

Virginia Hamilton (A) and Diane Dillon and Leo Dillon (Cover) Symmeon Shimin (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Small Town /Farm / Friendships – 2006)

Well spend the whole summer on the farm with Uncle Ross. I ought to make up something special just because we’ve…

Victoria Bond (A) and T.R. Simon (A)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Historical Non-Fiction/Biography / Life of Young Nora Neal Hurston / Literary Giant / Coming of Age Adventure – 2010)

Winner of the 2011 John Steptoe New Talent (Author) Award

Racial duplicity threatens an…