Kids’ Books That Honor Black History and Celebrate Black Joy

As a Social Studies teacher and mom of two, I’ve been collecting books that honor Black History and celebrate Black Joy for my home and classroom for a decade. As parents who want to raise culturally conscious kids, one of the best things tools we have is literature.

We can intentionally build a library of books from diverse authors and perspectives featuring stories of Black Americans both past and present.

A few things to know…

1. There are 3 specific types of books that we need in our kids’ libraries to give a broad perspective. (More on that in a minute.)
   
   
2. I’ve broken down this list into age group and type and linked titles to booksellers, so you can begin to add to your collection intentionally.
   
   
3. If you are just starting to add diverse kids books to your home, be realistic but consistent. You don’t have to buy 50 books to start. Just make it a goal to buy a few books every few months. Over the next year you’ll be creating a strong foundation of exposure for your child.
   

The 3 Types of Books Your Kids Need

TYPE 1: Books that accurately teach historical and ongoing oppression. These can be biographical and focus on freedom fighters and justice leaders past and present.

Examples: Books about the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, segregation and Civil Rights, Ruby Bridges, MLK, Thurgood Marshall.

TYPE 2: Books that highlight the brilliance, strength and contributions of Black Americans.

Examples: Biographies about inventors, authors, artists, athletes and musicians who contributed to American science and culture.

TYPE 3: Books that focus on Black joy with Black kids and families doing everyday things.

Our kids need to see books of people who do not look like them doing things they do! This builds a shared sense of humanity, especially if you happen to be white and do not have a diverse circle of family or friends.

Board Books for Ages 1-3

All titles below are linked to booksellers.

For this age, we focus on Type 3 books since historical concepts are too abstract for children just learning to communicate. We want to build a library with diverse characters and authors to normalize all skin colors and families.

• ABC What Can She Be?
• ABC’s of Equality
• All About Weather
• Antiracist Baby
• Curls
• Homemade Love
• I Am Not Sleepy
• I Am So Brave
• Lola Reads to Leo
• One Love
• The Story of Rap
• Think Big Little One
• Whose Toes Are Those?

Books for Ages 4-6

All titles below are linked to booksellers.

TYPE 1:

• Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
• My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Ruby Bridges Goes to School
• The Other Side

TYPE 2:

• Bunheads
• Black Cowboys
• Counting on Katherine
• Ella Queen of Jazz
• Have You Thanked An Inventor Today?
• Human Computer
• Little People Big Dreams: Wilma Rudolph
• I Am Harriet Tubman
• I Am Jackie Robinson
• Mae Among The Stars (About Astronaut Mae Jemison)
• Trombone Shorty
• Salt in His Shoes

TYPE 3:

• City Shapes
• I Am Enough
• I Like Myself
• Hair Love
• Jabari Jumps
• Layla’s Happiness
• My Family, Your Family
• One Family
• One Word from Sophia
• Sulwe
• Skin Like Mine
• Stella’s Stellar Hair
• Snowy Day
• The Colors of Us
• You Matter

Books for Ages 7-9

All titles below are linked to booksellers.

TYPE 1:

• Henry’s Freedom Box
• If You Were a Kid During the Civil Rights Movement
• Let the Children March
• Pink and Say
• The Undefeated
• The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom
• The Story of Harriet Tubman

TYPE 2:

• Bedtime Inspirational Stories: 50 Amazing Black People Who Changed the World
• Fly High!: The Story of Bessie Coleman
• Josephine Baker (Little People Big Dreams)
• Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History
• Major Taylor, Champion Cyclist
• Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis
• The Doctor With an Eye for Eyes
• The Girl With a Mind for Math
• Sisters and Champions: Venus & Serena Williams
• Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions 

TYPE 3:

• Can I Touch Your Hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship 
• Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut
• Juneteenth for Mazie
• Mia Mayhem -The Series *My 8 year old’s fav series!
• Mr. Lincoln’s Way
• The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County
• The Moon Over Star

Books for Ages 10-13

All titles below are linked to booksellers.

TYPE 1:

• Black Heroes: A Black History Book for Kids: 51 Inspiring People from Ancient Africa to Modern-Day U.S.A
• Finish the Fight
• One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance
• Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song

TYPE 2:

• A Black Woman Did That
• Black Women in Science
• Hidden Figures
• Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library
• What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors 

TYPE 3:

• Brown Girl Dreaming
• Genesis Begins Again
• Love Double Dutch
• My Life As an Ice Cream Sandwich 
• The Crossover
• The Season of Styx Malone
• Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky

Books for Teens

TYPE 1:

• Jefferson’s Sons: a Founding Father’s Secret Children
• March
• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You
• The Hate U Give
• We Are Not Yet Equal : Understanding Our Racial Divide

TYPE 2:

• Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America
• Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina
• The Mamba Mentality: How I Play 
• The Beautiful Struggle
• The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks 

TYPE 3:

• Charming as a Verb
• Get a Life, Chloe Brown
• Let Me Hear a Ryhme
• Piecing Me Together

Curating Your Child’s Library for Cultural Consciousness

Last tip? Intentionally seek out Black authors for your children’s books. Many times white authors will use Black characters but still write stories and historical events with a Eurocentric perspective.

Including Black authors, history and culture into our kids’ home libraries is one way of the best ways to teach cultural consciousness. Soon I’ll have another book list that focuses on global perspective, another topic for another day!

One book at a time we are teaching our kids what it means to be human.