If you have spent any time reading this blog, you know that I am not the best posting partner. But after sharing my resources with Annamarie (Scaffolding Anti-Racism Resouces, A Plan for Movement Worksheets, Student Voice) and reading her post, I felt like I should contribute more than a weekly post of “here are some good books I’ve read”.
Let’s be real, I am a white woman. I am not maligned because of the color of my skin. I do not face adversity, I am not profiled, and I am not judged or harmed because of the amount of melanin I have. I may have grown up in a “black and Hispanic” neighborhood, I may be considered an ally, but I am not a person of color and will never know the same struggles. My skin tone has given me an advantage all of my life even if I hadn’t always been conscious of that fact.
My story is not one that needs to be focused on.
But stories teach people. And written words can sometimes reach people better because they refuse to listen or cannot hear other’s truths over their own. So while my goal was to contribute more to this blog than a list of books…..I’m still going to give you a list of books.
Black Lives Matter: Books for All Ages
Picture Books & Readers:
- A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
- All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman
- Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
- The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson illustrated by Rafael López
- Chocolate Me! by Taye Diggs illustrated by Shane W. Evans
- I am Enough by Grace Byers illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo
- An ABC of Equality by Chana Ginelle Ewing
- My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera
- Hands Up! by Breanna J. McDaniel illustrated by Shane W. Evans
- Little Heroes of Color: 50 Who Made a BIG Difference by David Heredia
- Intersection Allies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, and Carolyn Choi illustrated by Ashley Seil Smith
- Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed illustrated by Stasia Burrington
- I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont illustrated by David Catrow
- Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
- Woke Baby by Mahogany L. Browne illustrated by Theodore Taylor III
Youth:
- Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
- Blended by Sharon M. Draper
- Brave. Black. First.: 50+ African American Women Who CHanged the World by Cheryl Hudson illustrated by Erin K. Robinson
- The Crossover by Kwame Alexander illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile
- Love Double Dutch! by Doreen Spicer-Dannelly
- The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown
- Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
- The Harlem Charade by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley
- Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham
- Midnight Without a Moon (series) by Linda Williams Jackson
- One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
- We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices edited by Wade Hudson
- Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Méndez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
- Can I Touch Your Hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham and Charles Waters illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko
- Trace by Pat Cummings
- Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne illustrated by Theodore taylor III
- Young, Gifted, and Black: Meet 52 Black Heores from Past and Present by Jamia Wilson illustrated by Andrea Pippins
Teen:
- I am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina illustrated by Stacey Robinson and John Jennings
- All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
- Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro
- Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi
- For Everyone by Jason Reynolds
- Light It Up by Kekla Magoon
- Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
- March (3 book series) by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin illustrated by Nate Powell
- Dear Martin by Nic Stone (the sequel Dear Justyce comes out this fall)
- Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance editted by Bethany C. Morrow
- Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz
- Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
- No Ivy League by Hazel Newlevant
- He Said She Said by Kwame Alexander
- Slay by Brittney Morris
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- Trell by Dick Lehr
- Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay COles
Adult:
- How to Be an Antiracist
- Blind Spot: The Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony Greenwald
- We Wear the Mask: 15 Stories of Passing in America edited by Bando Skyhorse and Lisa Page
- The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege by Ken Wytsma
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
- Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson
- You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson
- Dear White People by Justin Simien illustrated by Ian O’Plelan
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
And just because Isa’s (a student in my community) words are so powerful I wanted to include her spoken word poem again: