AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS
AFRICAN AMERICAN
Author(s)
Walter Dean Myers
Sharon Draper
Sharon Flake
Mildred Taylor
Nikki Grimes
Nikki Giovanni
Brenda Woods
Virginia Hamilton
Velma Maia Thomas
Dr. Cynthia Jacobs Carter
Tom Feelings
Julius Lester
Title(s)
Glory Field; Monster; Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary; Now is Your Time: The African
American Struggle for Freedom; One More River to Cross: An African American Photograph Album;
Fallen Angels; Shadow of the Red Moon; Slam; Scorpions; Bad Boy: A Memoir; The Beast; The
Dream Bearer; Won’t Know ‘Til I Get There; Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom; Somewhere in the
Darkness; At Her Majesty’s Request: An African Princess in Victorian England; It Ain’t All for
Nothin; 145th Street Short Stories, The Story of the Three Kingdoms and much more
Forged by Fire; Tears of a Tiger; Darkness before Dawn; Double Dutch; Jazzimagination; The Battle
of Jericho; Copper Sun; Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs (series) and more
The Skin I’m In; Money Hungry; Begging for Change; Bang!; Who Am I Without Him?: Short Stories
about Girls and the Boys in their Lives; and more
Friendship; The Land; Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; The Well: David’s Story; The Gold Cadillac;
The Road to Memphis; Mississippi Bridge; Song of the Trees; Let the Circle Be Unbroken
Bronx Masquerade; Jazmin's Notebook; Dark Sons; From a Child’s Heart; The Road to Paris
Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People
Emako Blue, The Red Rose Box
Cousins; Time Pieces; The Planet of Junior Brown; Zeely; M. C. Higgins; The House of Dries Drear;
Arilla Sun Down; The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales; Many Thousand Gone: African
Americans from Slavery to Freedom; Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True
Tales; The Winnie Witch’s Skinny: An Original African American Scare Tale
Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation; No Man Can Hinder Me: The
Journey from Slavery to Emancipation through Song; Freedom’s Children; We Shall Not Be Moved;
http://www.velmamaiathomas.com
Africana Woman: Her Story Through Time
The Middle Passage: White Ships, Black Cargo; Soul Looks Back in Wonder and many others
To Be a Slave; The Long Journey Home: Stories from Black History: and many more
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/mtai/lester.html
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AFRICAN AMERICAN
Wade Hudson
Russell L. Adams
Marian Wright Edelman
Toni Trent Parker
Patricia C. and Frederick L.
McKissack
Toni Morrison
Jim Haskins
Tonya Bolden
Langston Hughes –
Illustrated by Brian Pinkney
Anthony Davis and
Jeffrey Jackson
Diane Johnson
Frederick Douglass
Mary Lyons
Harriet Jacobs
Powerful Words: More than 200 years of Extraordinary Writing by African Americans; Kids’ Book of
Wisdom: Quotes from the African-American Tradition; Five Bold Freedom Fighters; Five Brave
Explorers; Five Notable Inventors; Pass It On: African-American Poetry for Children; In Praise of Our
Fathers and Our Mothers: A Black Family Treasury by Outstanding Authors
http://www.justusbooks.com/SharetheStory.html
Great Negroes Past and Present
I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire our Children
Sienna’s Scrapbook: Our African American Heritage Trip
Book of Great Black Heroes: Great Women in the Struggle; Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in
the United States; Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts; Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a
Woman?; Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers; Black Diamond: The
Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues; A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, A Slave Girl;
Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba and many more
Remember Me: The Journey to School Integration
Separate But Not Equal: The Dream and the Struggle; Black Stars: African American Inventors;
African American Entrepreneurs; Rosa Parks: My Story; Black Eagles: African Americans in
Aviation; Black Dance in America: A History Through Its People; One More River to Cross: The
Stories of Twelve Black Americans; The Day Martin Luther King Was Shot; Scott Joplin: The Man
Who Made Ragtime; The Day Fort Sumter Was Fired On and many more
Portraits of African-American Heroes: Cause: Reconstruction America 1863 – 1877; Maritcha: A
Nineteenth-Century American Girl; And Not Afraid to Dare: The Stories of Ten African-American
Women; The Book of African-American Women: 150 Crusaders, Creators and Uplifters; and many
others
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems;
“Yo, Little Brother…” Basic Rules of Survival for Young African American Males
Proud Sisters: The Wisdom and Wit of African-American Women
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
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AFRICAN AMERICAN
Janet Cheatham Bell
Sara De Capua
Lucy Ann Hurston
Dennis Brindell Fradin and
Judith Bloom Fradin
Maya Angelou
Mike Venezia
Susan Kantor
Haki R. Madhubuti
Peter and Connie Roop
Septima Clark
Richard Newman
Jeffrey Stewart
John Blake
Andrea Davis Pinkney
Chrisanne Beckner
Gaylia Taylor
Dr. Ben Carson
William J. Federer
Eloise Greenfield
Diane Patrick
Drs. Sampson Davis,
George Jenkins and
Rameck Hunt
Ellen Levine
Leonidas A. Johnson
Sheila Moses
Horace Randall Williams
Jacqueline Woodson
Dr. Mae Jemison
Famous Black Quotations
J. C. Watts Jr. Character Counts
Speak. So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston
Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
And Still I Rise; I Shall Not Be Moved
Jacob Lawrence
One Hundred and One African-American Read-Aloud Stories
Don’t Cry, SCEAM
Sojourner Truth
Ready from Within: Septima Clark & the Civil Rights Movement
African American Quotations
1001 Things Everyone Should Know about African American History
Children of the Movement
Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters
100 African-Americans Who Shaped American History
George Crum and the Saratoga Chip
Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence; Gifted Hands; The Big Picture
George Washington Carver: His Life & Faith in His Own Words
How They Got Over: African Americans and the Call of the Sea
Amazing African American History: A Book of Answers for Kids
We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success
Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories
Go Down Moses!: Daily Devotions Inspired by Old Negro Spirituals
The Legend of Buddy Bush; The Return of Buddy Bush; I, Dred Scott;
No Man’s Yoke on My Shoulders
If You Come Softly; Miracle’s Boys; Hush
Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life
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AFRICAN AMERICAN
Anthony Browder
Sharon Dennis Wyeth
Joyce Hansen
Jack Canfield
Casey King and Linda
Barrett Osborne
Rosa Parks
Terrie Williams
Stedman Graham
Diane McWhorter
Christopher Paul Curtis
Maxine D. Jones & Kevin
M. McCarthy
REFERENCE
Kwame Anthony Appiah
and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture
Jessie Carney Smith
Amy Alexander
AFRICA
Margy Burns Knight
Dr. Arthur Lewin
Beverly Naidoo
Mary Quigley
Silviane Anna Diouf
Hugh Vernon-Jackson
Survival Strategies for Africans in America: 13 Steps to Freedom
The World of Daughter McGuire
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy a Freed Slave Girl
Chicken Soup for the African American Soul
Oh, Freedom! Kids Talk about the Civil Rights Movement with the People Who Made It Happen
Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation; Dear Mrs.
Parks: A Dialogue with Today’s Youth
Stay Strong: Simple Life Lessons for Teens (with an introduction by Queen Latifah)
Teens Can Make It Happen
A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
African Americans in Florida
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
The New York Public Library African American Desk Reference
Black Firsts: 2,000 Years of Extraordinary Achievement
Fifty Black Women Who Changed America
Africa Is Not a Country
Africa Is Not a Country: It’s a Continent!
Journey to Jo’burg: A South African Story; The Other Side of Truth; Chain of Fire; No Turning Back;
Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope and others
Ancient West African Kingdoms: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai
Kings and Queens of Central Africa; Kings and Queens of West Africa; Kings and Queens of Southern
Africa; Kings and Queens of East Africa and others
African Folk Tales
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AFRICA
Dr. Vincent Muli Wa
Kituku
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
J. A. Rogers
A. Olusegun Fayeni
Nelson Mandela
Julia Stewart
East African Folktales for all Ages from the Voice of Mukamba
Joyce Hansen
Mary Williams
Basil Davidson
Mazrui
Wonders of the African World
Africa’s Gift to America
Voices from Within: Photographs of African Children
Favorite African Folktales
African Proverbs and Wisdom: A Collection for Every Day of the Year from More than Forty African
Nations
The African Princess: The Amazing Lives of Africa’s Royal Women
Brothers of Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan
African Kingdoms
The Africans
HAITI
Frances Temple
A Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti
Curriculum Materials
SETCLAE – Self Esteem Through Culture Leads to Academic Excellence – An Africentric Multicultural Curriculum
By Jawanza Kunjufu and Folami Prescott – African American Images Publications, Chicago, IL
Writing Books
Winners: A Culturally-Based Values Clarification-Oriented Creative Writing Primary Prevention Workbook for the Black Child
Volumes I, II and III - $30 each volume
Darnell Bell, 1576 E. King Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90011
213-234-2350
For more information about this list, please contact:
Rosemary Traoré
Assistant Professor, Urban Education
UNC at Charlotte
http://education.uncc.edu/rltraore
http://education.uncc.edu/coe
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