The very best books celebrating African American culture and values, by African American authors and/or illustrators, from 1970 to the present.
2023
Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual
Call Number: xz folio
2018
Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets
Call Number: x 811 A376
Presents a collection of twenty poems written in tribute to well-known poets from around the world.
2017
Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
Call Number: x 92 B316St
Author and Illustrator Javaka Steptoe paints brightly colored scenes of Basquiat’s life and artistic career on textured pieces of wood. This book won the Caldecott medal in 2017 and combines an artist’s biography with the message to children that they can create art based from their own stories and life experiences.
2016
Trombone Shorty
Call Number: x 92 A571
Grades K - 4. Hailing from the Tremé neighborhood in New Orleans, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews got his nickname by wielding a trombone twice as long as he was high. A prodigy, he was leading his own band by age six, and today this Grammy-nominated artist headlines the legendary New Orleans Jazz Fest.
2015
Firebird: Ballerina Misty Copeland Shows a Young Girl How to Dance Like the Firebird
Call Number: xz
(Gr. K-2) American Ballet Theater soloist Misty Copeland encourages a young ballet student, with brown skin like her own, by telling her that she, too, had to learn basic steps and how to be graceful when she was starting out, and that someday, with practice and dedication, the little girl will become a firebird, too. Includes author's note about dancers who led her to find her voice.
2012
Underground
Call Number: xz
(Grades K - 3) A family uses the Underground Railroad to escape slavery. Sparsely worded but powerful.
2011
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave
Call Number: xz
Grades K - 4
Chronicles the life of Dave, a nineteenth-century slave who went on to become influential poet, artist, and potter.Gorgeous illustrations by Bryan Collier, including one fold-out page.
2006
Rosa
Call Number: x 323.1 G512
(Gr. 3-5) Sometimes the smallest act galvanizes people into decisive action. In this case, it was a woman refusing to give up her seat on a bus and a bus boycott that lasted nearly a year before the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was illegal. Includes one fold-out spread. A handsomely illustrated look at a watershed event.
2005
Ellington Was Not a Street
Call Number: x 811 S528 folio
Gr. 3 and up. Shange's poem "Mood Indigo" pays tribute to several African American men who made important contributions to 20th century culture: Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, Ray Barretto, Dizzy Gillespie, "Sonny Til" Tilghman, Kwame Nkrumah, and Duke Ellington. Includes brief biographies of each.
2002
Goin' Someplace Special
Call Number: xz
Gr. 3-5. In segregated 1950s Nashville, TN, a young African American girl braves a series of obstacles to get to the public library, one of the few integrated places in the town.
