These books center on portraying Black joy in characters and stories that emphasize everyday living, a wide range of feelings, and positivity through growth in identity and community.
In this book list:
Board Books
Brimming with love and affirmation, this sweet board book shows bright brown baby girls and little ones everywhere that they can do anything. With bouncing, rhythmic text from New York Times bestselling author Andrea Davis Pinkney and tender, charming illustrations from Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator Brian Pinkney, this inspirational ode is the perfect way to offer confidence at the earliest stage and show all little girls that they can change the world!
Rhythmic text and adorable illustrations combine to celebrate all bright brown baby boys!
This playful rhyming board book celebrates the joy of seeing yourself in the ones you love and embracing your unique self.
Leo spends the day at the park with his mother and his friend Suki playing on the swings, building a sandcastle, splashing in water, and having a picnic.
Alex and their toy best friend, Monkey, invite the reader to join them for a playdate as they build blocks and play pretend.
A young boy's eyes reflect the light of the universe in this luminous board book.
This little one is eager to help and be 'just like you'. With a big heart and little hands, picnic messes ensue. Lucky for our little one, joy, acceptance, love, and even messes are a family trait!.
Picture Books and Early Readers
With so many beautiful hairstyles to choose from like perms and locs, a little girl decides to get the freshest fade on the block.
A celebration of Langston Hughes and African American authors he inspired, told through the lens of the party held at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in 1991.
Kayla and Mateo enjoy passing drawings of dinosaurs to each other across the clothesline that runs between their apartment windows, but when the clothesline is taken down, the two children must find a new way to keep their story--and friendship going.
A picture book that recognizes the beauty of the bodegas, subways, and playgrounds that characterize everyday life in the Bronx and pays homage to the ways that its residents have shaped pop culture through music, visual art, and dance.
From Marvyn Harrison, the founder of Dope Black Dads, and illustrator Diane Ewen, comes a joyful first book of positive affirmations. Every week, we choose words to help us feel brave, beautiful, and powerful! I Love Me! celebrates building confidence and self-esteem through uplifting statements that little ones and parents can say each day. The book's days-of-the-week structure provides routine, and the colorful, exuberant illustrations add to the kid appeal. Also included is back matter with tips for caregivers on how to best put these affirmations into practice.
A young Black girl and her aunt celebrate the wonder and magic of their family's legacy through storytelling.
A young girl celebrates her skin and what makes her unique.
Kids will love seeing strong, happy reflections of themselves in this vibrant, rhyming reader about the joy of being a boy--listening to music, swimming, exploring nature, being on a sports team, baking, doing math, and more. Full of easy-to-read fun on each page, this easy reader promotes boys' self-esteem, smarts, and strength.
Cornrows forming complex patterns. Shells and beads on boxy braids. A flowery 'fro that's wash and go. A regal pouf that scrapes the sky. Black hair styles embody beauty and loving ritual, culture and community, expression and strength, patience and boundless creativity.
A young girl and her father share an early morning horseback ride around their city in this celebration of "just-us time."
Drawn to the sound of their father's band, two siblings sneak out of bed and wiggle and sway to the music.
L is for lemons, and L is for lingering before leaving home. L is for everything to look at along the way: lightning and lazy lions and a lonely leopard. ... And best of all--L is for love. Part buoyant alphabet book, encouraging toddlers' first sounds and words, and part immersion in the joyful bustle of a busy Nigerian marketplace.
Based on the African American spiritual, I Gotta Sing follows a young boy's morning at the farm as he evades his Nana's call for a bath and instead joins his Pop to answer the call to sing and dance.
School Age
From seventeen acclaimed Black male and nonbinary authors comes a vibrant collection of stories, comics, and poems about the power of joy and the wonders of Black boyhood.
A vibrant, heartwarming collection of 15 middle grade stories and poems that celebrates the joy, strength, and experience of Black girlhood, including stories from Ibi Zoboi, Sharon M. Draper, and Leah Johnson.
Eager to make a good first impression at her new middle school, thirteen-year-old Charlie does her best to fit in until she meets a group of diverse Black girls who show her the importance of authenticity.
Lincoln and Hudson Dupré are brothers with what grown-ups call "active imaginations." Unfortunately, their imaginary adventures wreak havoc in their real world. Dr. and Mrs. Dupré have tried every babysitter in the neighborhood and are at their wits' end. Enter Ms. Joyce. Strict and old-fashioned, she proves to be a formidable adversary. The brothers conspire to undermine Ms. Joyce and get her fired. When they go so big that even Ms. Joyce can't fix it, suddenly she's out. Finally, success! Or is it?
"Life is how you look at it." And for Black photographer Roy DeCarava, life in his neighborhood was beautiful. Follow Roy through 1940s Harlem, as he takes out his camera, pops in a roll of film, and opens his eyes to the beauty all around him.
How did a bunch of young people from the inner city create a genre of music that became a global phenomenon? From its humble origins at house parties in the Bronx, where DJs mixed old records to create new sounds, charismatic MCs let their clever lyrics flow, and B-boys and B-girls pioneered inventive dance moves, hip-hop quickly became a musical and cultural revolution.
Thirteen-year-old Isaiah grapples with the loss of his best friend as he strives to fit into a world that expects him to toughen up, which leads him on a exploration of identity and vulnerability.
Jordan, Drew, Liam, Maury, and their friends from Riverdale Academy Day School are heading out on a school trip to Paris. As an aspiring artist himself, Jordan can't wait to see all the amazing art in the famous City of Lights. But when their trusted faculty guides are replaced at the last minute, the school trip takes an unexpected-and hilarious-turn.
An uplifting and empowering illustrated anthology of joyful contributions from 52 contemporary Black voices, including chess grandmaster Maurice Ashley, scientist Dr. Raven the Science Maven, and award-winning author Patrice Lawrence.
Teens and YA
In this semi-autobiographical collection of poems, Renée Watson writes about her experience growing up as a young Black girl at the intersections of race, class, and gender. Using a variety of poetic forms, from haiku to free verse, Watson shares recollections of her childhood in Portland, tender odes to the Black women in her life, and urgent calls for Black girls to step into their power.
Told from multiple points of view, Ardith and Hollis Blackwood's lives are upended when their great-grandmother, legendary actress Blossom Blackwood, passes away, and family secrets emerge.
Sixteen-year-old twins Clement and Cristina feel lost after their father's death, but find a new sense of purpose as they work to quell the rising tensions between New Orleans's magic and non-magic communities and find out who cursed their mother.
This follows the story of Charisma, a Black high school student grappling with mounting pressures from home and school, and when frustrations with her family intersect with a conflict at school, she reaches a crossroads, facing a choice that could change her future.
This graphic novel memoir explores the story of how a young change-maker learned to find himself and never compromise. How the right decision is very rarely the easy one, but taking the road less traveled can make all the difference in the world.
Featuring exclusively Black characters, this multi-genre story collection-drawing from contemporary, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, magical and realistic-celebrates and redefines the many facets of Blackness and geekiness, both in the real world and those imagined.
The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now it's 1910, and the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love--even where they're not supposed to.
After not being able to have a sweet sixteen party, Mahalia decides to throw a coming out party to celebrate love and herself.
A confrontation with a teacher and a family crisis force high school senior Cerulean Gene to drop out of twelfth grade and derails their dreams of moving cross-country and living off the grid. Salt the Water is a book about dreaming in a world that has other plans for your time, your youth, and your future. It asks, what does it look like when a bunch of queer Black kids are allowed to dream? And what does it look like for them to confront the present circumstances of the people they love while still pursuing a wildly different future of their own?
When Gil, a Black teen from Brooklyn, struggles to fit in at his primarily white Manhattan prep school, he wages a clandestine war against the racist administration, parents, and students, while working with other Black students to ensure their voices are finally heard.