Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
Ages 13+
When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend.
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We keep this on the shelf for race, identity, and seeing yourself on the page — a story kids can feel, not just a lesson adults want to teach.
Ages 13+. Especially helpful for kids who notice unfairness and want to help.
Ask: What made someone in this story feel proud of who they are?
Bedtime tip: after the last page, ask one question and wait — silence is where the story sticks.
Two titles that deepen the same conversation.
Ages 8–12
A Good Kind of TroubleFrom debut author Lisa Moore Ramée comes this funny and big-hearted debut middle grade novel about friendship, family, and standing up for what’s right, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give and the novels of Renée Watson ...
Ages 3–8
A Kids Book About RacismThis is one conversation that's never too early to start, and this book was written to be an introduction for kids on the topic.
Ages 3–8
An American StoryThis is the story of American slavery, a story that needs to be told and understood by all of us. A testament to the resilience of the African American community, this book honors what has been and envisions what is to be.
Ages 3–8
Antiracist BabyFrom the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist comes a new full-sized picture book that empowers parents and children to uproot racism in our society and in ourselves, now with added ...
Ages 3–8
Belle, the last mule at Gee's BendIn Gee's Bend, Alabama, Miz Pettway tells young Alex about the historic role her mule played in the struggle for civil rights led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Includes factual information about the community of Gee's Bend and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ages 13+
Children of Blood and BoneZélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie's Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Ages 3–8
Chocolate me!Relates the experiences of a dark-skinned, curly-haired child who wishes he could look more like the lighter-skinned children in his community until his mother helps him realize how wonderful he is inside and out.
Ages 3–8
Civil Rights Childhood: Picturing Liberation in African American Photobooks"Childhood joy, pleasure, and creativity are not often associated with the civil rights movement. Their ties to the movement may have faded from historical memory, but these qualities received considerable photographic attention in that tumultuous era. Katharine Capshaw's Civil Rights Childhood reveals how the Black child has been--and continues to be--a social agent that demands change. Because children carry a compelling aura of human value and potential, images of African American children in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education had a powerful effect on the fight for civil rights. In the iconography of Emmett Till and the girls murdered in the 1963 Birmingham church bombings, Capshaw explores the function of children's photographic books and the image of the Black child in social justice campaigns for school integration and the civil rights movement. Drawing on works ranging from documentary photography, coffee-table and art books, and popular historical narratives and photographic picture books for the very young, Civil Rights Childhood sheds new light on images of the child and family that portrayed liberatory models of Blackness, but it also considers the role photographs played in the desire for consensus and closure with the rise of multiculturalism.
