Black & African American

Hit the road with Bud in this Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning classic about a boy on a journey to find his father....

Amari Peters has never stopped believing her missing brother, Quinton, is alive. Not even when the police told her otherwise, or when she got in trouble for standing up to bullies who said he was gone for good....

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Kwame Mbalia's epic fantasy, a middle grade American Gods set in a richly-imagined world populated with African American folk heroes and West African gods....

Nobody could capture the Phantom. She was the wildest mare on Assateague Island. They said she was like the wind, that the white "map" on her shoulders was her mark of freedom....

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice....

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree about an unforgettable family on a road-trip during one of the most important times in the civil rights movement....

Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team....

After finding her brother and saving the entire supernatural world, Amari Peters is convinced her first full summer as a Junior Agent will be a breeze....

At first, beautiful, hardworking Tiana is not impressed when she meets spoiled Prince Naveen. But when the two of them are transformed into frogs, they quickly realize that they will have to learn to like each other, warts and all, if they hope to get out of the Louisiana bayou alive....

Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he observes the devastation that's been unleashed....

Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories....

Today, LeBron James is an international superstar who has won four NBA Championships, earned two Olympic gold medals, written books, and starred in blockbuster movies....

Two years ago, Zoe Washington helped clear Marcus’ name for a crime he didn’t commit. Now her birth father has finally been released from prison and to an outpouring of community support, so everything should be perfect....

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....

A boy tries to steer a safe path through the projects in Harlem in the wake of his brother’s death in this outstanding debut novel that celebrates community and creativity....

Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. (Oh, and she’d also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact.) But in junior high, it’s like all the rules have changed....

From number one New York Times best-selling author Nic Stone comes a challenging and heartwarming coming-of-age story about a softball player looking to prove herself on and off the field....

Few campers at Camp Apple Hill Farm have found the mysterious cabin rumored to be hidden deep in the woods—but those who have whisper of a mysterious woman who tells tales of horrors beyond imagination. Are you brave enough to visit Cabin 23?

Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space....

Tracing the history of African Americans in Tulsa's Greenwood district, this book chronicles the devastation that occurred in 1921 when a White mob attacked the Black community....

Adapted from her adult memoir, this is the autobiography of Coretta Scott King–wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., founder of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (the King Center), and twentieth-century American civil and human rights activist....

While this audiobook details thrilling flight missions and the grueling training sessions the Tuskegee Airmen underwent, it also shines a light on the lives of these brave men who helped pave the way for the integration of the US armed forces. Listen to learn more....

Born to parents who fled slavery and the Trail of Tears, Magnolia Flower is a girl with a vibrant spirit. Not to be deterred by rigid ways of the world, she longs to connect with others, who too long for freedom. She finds this in a young man of letters who her father disapproves of....

Brendan Buckley just found out that the grandpa he's never met lives nearby. He secretly visits him, but soon wishes he'd never found him at all....

In the first middle grade offering from Zora Neale Hurston and Ibram X. Kendi, young listeners are introduced to the remarkable and true-life story of Cudjo Lewis, one of the last survivors of the Atlantic human trade....

On June 19, 1865, the 250,000 enslaved people of Texas learned they were free, ending slavery in the United States. This day was soon to be memorialized with the dedication of a park in Houston. The park was called Emancipation Park, and the day it honored would come to be known as Juneteenth. In the voice and memory of the park itself—its fields and pools, its protests and cookouts, and, most of all, its people—the 150-year story of Emancipation Park is brought to life.

The last thing Tasha Washington wants is to move from her home in Savannah to a trailer park in Middle-of-Nowhere, Georgia. But when her mother dies and Tasha is taken in by her father—a man she’s never met, who abandoned her mom when Tasha was just a baby—she doesn’t have much of a choice. At least, she thinks, she won’t have to spend much time with him—something that becomes clear when he dumps Tasha with her grandmother and disappears to be with his new girlfriend.

Everyone expects Coop to be musical like his beloved parents, but he’s not. That’s one of the few things he finds awkward about being adopted—well, that and the fact that he sometimes wonders why his birth mother didn’t love him enough to keep him. This summer, he’s stuck at home with a broken arm after falling out of a tree trying to get a closer peek at a mockingbird nest. Later, when the eggs in the nest have hatched and the fledglings fly away, he and his friend Zandi notice that one of them stays behind. Taking a closer look, they realize the bird only has one wing.

Summer is finally here, and she's bringing the most perfect day! From sunup to sundown, there's so much to do on this lovely summer day. With summer comes fresh fruit, sweet and tangy, jump ropes for leaping and dancing, and friends at the pool swimming and floating. Summer brings family cookouts under shady trees, gardens overflowing, and the familiar song of the ice-cream truck.

Since Grandpa died, Dally’s days are dull and restricted. She’s eleven and a half years old, and her exacting single mother is already preparing her to take over the family business. Starved for adventure and release, Dally rescues a mysterious envelope from her mother’s clutches, an envelope Grandpa had earmarked for her. The map she finds inside leads straight to an ancient vault, a library of secrets where each book is a portal to a precise moment in time. As Dally “checks out” adventure after adventure she begins to dive deep into her family’s hidden history.

There’s breaking news on TV at Frankie’s house—a protest to demand justice! Frankie’s mama, a journalist, gets a call to cover the story, and Frankie wants to do her own reporting, too. But what is a protest, exactly, and why do people do it? Along with her news crew, including Farrah the doll, Dan the teddy bear, and Nina the cat, Frankie prepares a feature story by doing research and conducting interviews with Papa and big sister Raven.

Ameena feels invisible. It’s been that way since she started at her new school. But now there is another new girl in class. Ameena sees her brownness and her hijab, even though the other kids do not. Ameena wants to be her friend, but she can’t seem to find the right words or do the right things. Until one day, they find them together: “Assalamu Alaikum, Sister. Welcome.”

From breakbeat poet and playwright Idris Goodwin and celebrated artist Lorraine Nam comes a whimsical, irresistible rhyming read-aloud empowering kids to embrace their imagination. Perfect for fans of The Year We Learned to Fly and Boxitects.

Kwanzaa is about celebrating! It honors African American heritage. Some people mark the holiday by lighting the kinara. Families and friends gather to eat a big feast. Listeners will discover how a shared holiday can have multiple traditions and be celebrated in all sorts of ways.

In 1949, Dorothy Vaughan became the first African American woman to lead a team at NASA's Langley Research Center. Her work as a mathematician was an important part of helping the United States explore space. Learn more about Vaughan's life as a famous mathematician!

The Underground Railroad was used by people escaping enslavement in the South. This system of passages and safe houses helped people reach freedom in the Northern United States or Canada. Did you know science played a role in the Underground Railroad?

It’s the last few months of eighth grade, and Isaiah feels lost. He thought his summer was going to be him and his boys Drew and Darius, hanging out, doing wheelies, watching martial arts movies, and breaking tons of Guiness World Records before high school. But now, more and more, Drew seems to be fading from their friendship, and though he won’t admit it, Isaiah knows exactly why. Because Darius is…gone.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that schools had to allow Black students to attend previously all-white schools. On September 4, 1957, nine Black students were set to attend Little Rock Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. But when they arrived, an angry mob of white people spat at them and hurled racist insults. They were also prevented from entering the school by the National Guard. After they were finally allowed in weeks later, they faced even more abuse from white students and staff.

In 1968, Arthur Ashe climbed his way to the top of the tennis world in a time filled with racial tension and segregation. But his success didn’t happen without help. Arthur’s close relationship with his younger brother, Johnnie, was key to Arthur becoming the first Black man to break the color barrier in men’s tennis.

Eli dresses up in his best clothes, Mama gathers the mayflowers, Papa straightens his hat, and together they join the crowds filling the streets of Charleston with bouquets, crosses, and wreaths. Joined by abolitionists, missionaries, teachers, military officers, and a sea of faces black, brown, and white, they march as one and sing for all those who gave their lives fighting for freedom during the Civil War.