African American History Month: Young Adult Books

After her parents' divorce, biracial teenager Nina Armstrong doesn't feel like she fits anywhere; however, she finds meaning and inspiration when she learns about her great-great grandmother's escape from slavery in the 1850s.

During World War II, 18-year-old Ida Mae Jones passes for white so she can join the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), serve her country, and fulfill her lifelong dream of flying. Smith tells a riveting story about a little-known chapter of World War II history, set against the backdrop of Jim Crow America.

Set at Monticello during the last two decades of Thomas Jefferson's life, this novel is told from the perspective of two of Jefferson's sons by Sally Hemings, and another enslaved boy. A well-researched fictional account that will give readers much to reflect upon.

Grades 7 and up. Melba Pattillo Beals was one of "the Little Rock Nine," the African American teenagers selected to integrate Central High School in 1957. Beals recounts the bullying, intimidation, threats of violence - and unexpected kindnesses - she experienced. A breathtaking and moving memoir by a woman of tremendous courage.

Grades 6 and up. Birmingham, Alabama was one of the major battlegrounds in the Civil Rights Movement. On one side was the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, a civil rights leader who fought for equal rights for African Americans, and was frequently the target of Ku Klux Klan threats and violence. On the other was Eugene "Bull" Connor, the segregationist Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety, who employed brutal tactics against protesters. A must-read account of the civil rights movement, filled with photographs and primary sources.

On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own. Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?

After witnessing her friend's death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter's life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.

Highly readable novel about a girl with a white mother and black father who struggles with her mixed race identity.

Emmett Till, a Chicago teen visiting family in Mississippi, was kidnapped, beaten and lynched for allegedly whistling at a white woman. This 1955 murder kicked off a maelstrom of outrage that focused national attention on Southern segregation.

In 1955, 12-year-old Simeon Wright saw his cousin, Emmett Till, whistle at a white woman outside a grocery store. Two nights later, Simeon witnessed the kidnapping of 14-year-old Emmett from his own bed. Two white men abducted Emmett, and beat him so savagely his body was nearly unidentifiable. This horrible crime became a rallying point for the civil rights movement.

Grades 5-8. In 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin allowed herself to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Though Rosa Parks became the public face of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, this little-known story of a teenager who fought for the cause of civil rights is well worth reading.

An eleven-year-old runaway slave, a nine-year-old freed by her master, and a seven-year-old son of a plantation owner find themselves alone during the Civil War and must rely on each other to survive.

When fifteen-years-old Johnny Gibbs is told that he is really a foster child, he runs off into the street of Harlem and meets up with a gang that wants him to participate in a mugging.

A black boy and an emotionally troubled white boy in North Carolina become friends in this award-winning YA classic.

In Mississippi in 1955, a sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a fourteen-year-old African American from Chicago.

Growing up in the 1960s, Stevie Stevenson's clashes with her parents' traditional values and her own interest in the opposite sex are further complicated by her fellow students' increased political awareness and activism for civil rights.

This book, by an African, is about the life of the Igbo people around the time the British were busy colonizing the region. It provides a interesting, informative look at a people and a place.

Paired up for a senior chemistry project, gang member Alex and cheerleader Brittany are surprised to find they have much more in common than their friends would ever guess.

Short stories and poems about boys and the tough situations they face in life.

When Darell moves from Philadelphia to California, he finds that along with a new school also comes a new bully. Will he keep running from bullies, or will he learn to fight back?

Maleeka is embarrassed by her extremely dark skin, but she gets encouragement from a teacher who has appearance issues herself.

A collection of poetry by rap artist and actor Tupac Shakur, written at the age of 19, before he became famous.

Half Jewish and half African American, Zack learns more about his heritage from his grandfather in Mississippi.

Misty Copeland overcame the odds of a dysfunctional home, racism, and a late start with ballet lessons to become a star and soloist with American Ballet Theatre. No matter what the odds, obstacles, or pain, in life and in ballet, her autobiography conveys her indomitable spirit and passion for dance.

Theo is an aspiring ballerina with the talent and dedication to go all the way to the top. She’s headed for great things, but Theo also has some demons in her past, and she’ll have to figure out how to face them before she can move forward with her life. Readers who love complex stories with imperfect and achingly real characters should be sure to check this one out.

Told in alternating voices, this is the compelling and nuanced story of two Springfield High School students: Rashad, a black 16-year-old ROTC member and aspiring artist, and Quinn, a white senior and varsity basketball player, and what happens when an off-duty officer and family friend of Quinn viciously assaults Rashad at a corner store after wrongly assuming he was stealing a bag of chips. 

 

Set in Brooklyn, fifteen-year-old Ali and his two best friends, brothers Needles and Noodles, learn about themselves and each other after they get caught up in a dangerous situation that tests their friendship.

Nick Pearson has gotten good at flying under the radar since his family joined the witness protection program, but he’s willing to risk his cover after a classmate dies under mysterious circumstances in this Edgar Award-nominated thriller.

 

March is popping up all over the place on best graphic novel lists for 2013, and rightfully so. This is the first book in a planned trilogy that tells of the struggle of Congressman John Lewis, his first hand experience of the Jim Crow South, and his experience living through segregation and choosing to fight against it through his participation in key Civil Rights moments, such as the March on Washington and the Selma-Montgomery March. Fantastic assignment book for teachers looking for an engaging document to bring the struggle for racial equality for African Americans to light.

This poetry collection captures a multitude of voices from the 1963 March on Washington—and a multitude of experiences, hopes, and emotions.

Six fictional characters, in cycles of linked poems, relate their memories of the historic day in 1963 when more than 250,000 people from across the United States joined together to march on Washington, D.C., calling for civil and economic rights for African Americans.

Newbery Honor Winner and National Book Award finalist Marilyn Nelson writes a memoir in verse about coming of age during the Civil Rights Movement and finding her identity as an artist.

Twin sisters Maya and Nikki navigate their senior year of high school and come to terms with issues of racial identity - and racial injustice - against the backdrop of their gentrifying Portland neighborhood.

 

Lynda Blackmon Lowery, the youngest marcher in the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, tells her story here in this powerful and award-winning memoir.

A job at a funeral home helps seventeen-year-old Matt come to terms with his own grief and struggles.

 

When a black teenager is shot and killed by a white man, the community is thrown into chaos as every witness has a different story to tell.

 

As the only white player on his high school basketball team, Finley doesn’t understand why his coach insists that he befriend Russell, a troubled black superstar who has just moved to their town outside Philadelphia.  Finley lives in a violent neighborhood controlled by the Irish mob.  Though Russell comes from a privileged existence on the West Coast, ever since his parents were murdered, he can barely function.

This fictionalized account of Malcolm X’s childhood and teenage years was co-written by his daughter and shows both the injustices he endured and the formative experiences and people who helped make him a leader.

 

Meet the war correspondents, Red Cross workers, activists, entertainers, and others who did extraordinary things to help their country during World War II.

 

This is the story of Ella Sheppard who founded the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University to save the school from an uncertain financial future. She also led them on a successful European tour in the 1800s during which they sang for Queen Victoria.

Prolific Young Adult author Walter Dean Myers turns the spotlight on himself as he recounts coming of age in Harlem in the 1940s-1950s. This is a timeless story, both introspective and entertaining, about a boy's search for his racial identity and early beginnings as a writer.

Davis sheds light on an often-overlooked part of our nation's history in this biography of five enslaved individuals - Billy Lee, Ona Judge, Isaac Granger, Paul Jennings, and Alfred Jackson - and the U.S. Presidents who owned them.

Winner of the 2017 Michael Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. U.S. Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis continues his story in the concluding volume of this graphic novel trilogy, which opens with the bombing of the Birmingham Baptist Church, Freedom Summer and ends with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 being signed into law.

Congressman John Lewis powerfully recounts his journey in the 1960s' civil rights movement as the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The strength of March is the ability of Congressman John Lewis to teach a new generation about the events of the civil rights movement in a way that both entertains and educates.

In a world that places beauty as an item for purchase, the Belles can make a person look however they’d like on the outside, no matter how ugly they are on the inside. Camellia Beauregard wants to be the best, but once she starts down the path of giving other people beauty, the true darkness of people emerges.

Ghost, aka Castle Crenshaw, is used to running away from things. Fast. So when he stumbles upon a track club practicing in the park and finds himself challenging their fastest sprinter, he attracts the attention of the club's coach who recruits him to join and in the process challenges him to look inside himself.

When Rowan finds a skeleton on her family's property, investigating the brutal, century-old murder leads to painful discoveries about the past. Alternating chapters tell the story of William, another teen grappling with the racial firestorm leading up to the 1921 Tulsa race riot, providing some clues to the mystery.

Told over several hours on an ordinary day in New York, teens Natasha and Daniel meet, and discover the universe, which in its own extraordinary way, has brought them into each other’s lives.

Mary B. Addison killed a baby. Allegedly. She didn't say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? There wasn't a point to setting the record straight before, but now she's got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary's fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?