Blog Archives

Black History Books for Elementary Readers

2/2/2024

Picture Books:

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, ill. Kadir Nelson, print | ebook
Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews & Bill Taylor, ill. Bryan Collier, print | book/cd | ebook | eaudio
Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop by Alice Faye Duncan, ill. R. Gregory Christie, print | eaudio
Hammering for Freedom by Rita L. Hubbard, ill. John Holyfield, print
Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine, ill. Kadir Nelson, print
Bad News for Outlaws by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, ill. R. Gregory Christie, print | ebook | eaudio
There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds, ill. Jerome & Jarrett Pumphrey, print
Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange, ill. Kadir Nelson, print | eaudio
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, adapt. Winifred Conkling, ill. Laura Freeman, print
Between the Lines by Sandra Neil Wallace, ill. Bryan Collier, print
Unspeakable by Carole Boston Weatherford, ill. Floyd Cooper, print | audio cd | ebook | eaudio

Chapter Books:

Zora and Me: The Summoner by Victoria Bond, print
Like Vanessa by Tami Charles, print | audio cd | eaudio
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis, print | ebook | eaudio
Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper, print | audio cd | ebook | eaudio
The Lucky Ones by Linda Williams Jackson, print | ebook | eaudio
Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson, print | ebook | eaudio
Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz & Renee Watson, print | audio cd | ebook | eaudio
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, print | audio cd | ebook | eaudio
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, print | audio cd | ebook | eaudio

Historical Fiction for Black History Month

2/1/2024

February is Black History Month! Celebrate with one of these historical fiction titles by Black authors released in the last ten years, most since 2020.

Enslavement

The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates, print | large print | audio | playaway | ebook | eaudio
Grace, Natashia Deón, print | eaudio
Yellow Wife, Sadeqa Johnson, print | large print | ebook | eaudio
The Prophets, Robert Jones, Jr., print | large print | ebook | eaudio
Citizens Creek, Lalita Tademy, print | audio | ebook
Let Us Descend, Jesmyn Ward, print | large print | ebook | eaudio

Civil War

An Extraordinary Union, Alyssa Cole, print | ebook | eaudio
The Sweetness of Water, Nathan Harris, print | large print | ebook | eaudio
Black Cloud Rising, David Wright Faladé, print | ebook | eaudio

1900s-1920s

Ring Shout, P. Djeli Clark, print | ebook | eaudio
Coleman Hill, Kim Coleman Foote, print
Lone Women, Victor LaValle, print | ebook | eaudio

WWII

Sisters in Arms, Kaia Alderson, print | ebook | eaudio

1950s

The Reformatory*, Tananarive Due, print
The House of Eve, Sadeqa Johnson, print | audio | ebook | eaudio
On the Rooftop, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, print | ebook | eaudio

1960s

Deacon King Kong, James McBride, print | ebook | eaudio
Saving Ruby King, Catherine Adel West, print | ebook
Harlem Shuffle, Colson Whitehead, print | large print | ebook | eaudio
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead, print | large print | ebook | eaudio

1970s

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, print | large print | audio | ebook | eaudio
Another Brooklyn, Jacqueline Woodson, print | large print | ebook | eaudio

1980s

The Unsettled*, Ayana Mathis, print
A Kind of Freedom, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, print | ebook | eaudio

1990s

What’s Mine and Yours, Naima Coster, print | audio | ebook | eaudio
What the Fireflies Knew, Kai Harris, print | ebook | eaudio
Memphis, Tara M. Stringfellow, print | ebook | eaudio

Multiple time periods

Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi, print | large print | audio | ebook | eaudio
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, print | ebook | eaudio
In West Mills, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, print | ebook
Monster in the Middle, Tiphanie Yanique, print | ebook | eaudio

*These titles are very new—it's likely that ebooks will be added to the collection soon!

About

Booklists and reading suggestions from the team at Monroe Public Library.

After each title, you'll find links to reserve these items on LINKcat and Wisconsin's Digital Library. In many cases, you can choose from print, large print, audio CD, and Playaway, or ebooks and eaudiobooks.

(LINKcat links from 2021 through 4/2022 may be broken. We'll fix them ASAP!)

For lists before 2021:
Titles with an asterisk * are available as ebooks and titles with an ª are available as digital audiobooks on Wisconsin's Digital Library.

Black History Books for Elementary Readers

Historical Fiction for Black History Month

About

Archives

Categories