One Plastic Bag, by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request from your local library!)

Hello, Crochet Friends!, by Jonah and Jennifer Larson and photographed by Erin Harris

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen and illustrated by Lucia Soto

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Serena: The Littlest Sister, by Karlin Gray and illustrated by Monica Ahanonu

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Carpenter's Helper, by Sybil Rosen and illustrated by Camille Garoche

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet, by Curtis Manley and illustrated by Jessica Lanan

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

Kaia and the Bees, by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Angela Dominguez

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas, by Gwendolyn Hooks

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Rocket Says Look Up and Rocket Says Clean Up, by Nathan Bryon and illustrated by Dapa Adeola

 

BUY HERE (Look) and BUY HERE (Clean) (or, even better, request at your local library)

The Day You Begin, by Jacqueline Woodson

The Day You Begin focuses on children who feel different, for reasons such as the way they look, how much money their family has,  or the language they speak. It truly captures the feeling of aloneness and otherness, as well as the courage it takes to announce your otherness to the world and go forth and find commonality with others.  This isn't the type of book I'd typically recommend - it doesn't have a linear plot - but my son and I were both entranced by the emotions so perfectly captured in this book that, for once, it didn't matter.  

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Don't Touch My Hair, by Sharee Miller

Aria loves her hair but is fed up with everyone attempting to touch it.  She devises elaborate avoidance techniques, hides in the bushes, and even runs away to the tallest castle, but people (or fantastical creatures) STILL try and touch her hair. She finally gets fed up and yells "DON'T TOUCH MY HAIR!" and elaborates that people need to ask permission and respect her wishes.

It's simple but effective. To be honest, I somewhat reluctantly picked up Don't Touch My Hair by author-illustrator Sharee Miller, thinking my son probably wouldn't be interested and there wouldn't be much of a story involved. We've read a lot of books (seriously, so so many) that celebrate Black hair, but don't go beyond that and tell any sort of story to grab a child's interest. This and Bippity Bop Barbershop are the only two that my son has actually enjoyed and requested again.   

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

WHOOSH! Lonnie Johnson's SUPER-SOAKING Stream of Inventions, by Chris Barton

We discovered this book when I was researching Black inventors to study that would catch my son's interest. Like most kids, he's obsessed with water guns and so a book about the inventor of the super soaker seemed perfect.

This book more than delivered! It manages to go through Lonnie Johnson's whole life -- from his childhood inventing rockets to his time at NASA, and finally to his invention of the super soaker and his struggles to find a toy company interested in his product -- with enough fun details to keep kids interested.  My son's favorite detail was that he "borrowed" his sister's walkie-talkie to finish up a robot he was building. 

The illustrations by Don Tate, a wonderful Black illustrator, which include a fold out page with water spraying all over toy company executives, were the icing on the cake.

            BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Kaia and the Bees, by Maribeth Boelts

We read Kaia and the Bees as part of a bee study I did with my son, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Kaia is shown as having a Black father and a white mother - something that isn't otherwise discussed in the story.  My son strongly identified with this story because of Kaia's fear of bee stings, and it's a quick engaging read.  

Kaia's dad keeps bees on the roof of their apartment building, though Kaia never helps because she was previously stung by a bee.  Though one day she brags to her friends about how much she helps with the bees, only to panic - right in front of them! - when a bee lands on her arm.  Their laughter goads her into actually going on the roof with the bees.  It's great, until . . . she takes off a glove and is stung AGAIN.  The book ends with her overcoming her fear and also learning a bit about bees.  

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Clubhouse Mysteries Series, by Sharon Draper

We're currently five books into the six book Clubhouse Mystery series written by Sharon Draper and my son is obsessed.  I wasn't sure how he'd take to these books - especially given their age (they're about 15 years old) - but he's taken with how "real life" they are.  The series follows four Black boys with distinct personalities and families as they form a club and go on various adventures - from attending a space camp together to finding a young fawn and raising him until he's old enough to go to a local wildlife center.  His favorite character is currently Ziggy, a charismatic and outgoing boy who is always putting together wacky outfits and eating odd food combinations, who he finds absolutely hilarious.  I think his obsession with the realism is that so many of the books we read have some form of magic or preposterous situation, while my son can actually envision himself in the situations in these books.  

Some of the books touch on slavery, in particular Lost in the Tunnel of Time (in which they boys stumble upon an old tunnel from the Underground Railroad).  And I did find myself changing some of the words in Shadows of Caesar's Creek, in which the children learn about the Shawnee tribe, as some of the language was outdated.  However, these books have been invaluable and I'm positive that my son will revisit them several times over the next few years.

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

The Last Last-Day-of-Summer, by Lamar Giles

I read The Last Last-Day-of-Summer out loud to my son in the days leading up to his first day of 1st grade.  We both loved it.  Some of the jokes and references were over his head, but he was generally able to follow the plot and was beginning to continue reading at the end of each chapter.  

The two main characters are Otto and Sheed Alston, Black cousins famous for their otherworldly adventures in their unusual town.  They are extremely close and both live with their grandmother (why this is or where their parents are goes unmentioned) and their main competitors are two Black sisters - one a wizard at robotics and the other nicknamed "Wiki" for the vast amount of knowledge she carries around in her head.  There's a nice aside at one point where Otto recalls his grandmother's reminder never to touch anyone without their permission - even if their body is frozen in time - and asks Wiki if he can touch her arm to unfreeze her.  

The book is a long and engaging read full of adventure, traps, "manuevers" to escape tricky situations, complex relationships, and richly drawn characters.  We're already eagerly waiting for the next book, and though we borrowed this from the library it may be one of the few we purchase to keep on the bookshelf for years to come.  

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Another Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown

It's been a while since I've read or recommended a book for infants, but we stumbled across Another Important Book at the library and picked it up because we adore the author Margaret Wise Brown (her book Little Fur Family was an early favorite of ours).  My 6 year old was, of course, way too old but listened gamely (and I was a huge fan).  The illustrations are of tumbling, crying, dancing, giggling babies of all different colors, and I'm positive the lyrical and repetitive text would have appealed to my son if he had been a few years younger.  I'm sad we stumbled onto this book too late to add it to our bedtime collection, but perhaps it isn't too late for you!

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

Silent Night, by Lara Hawthorne

This book combines the words to Silent Night with beautifully illustrated pictures of the Nativity, a Nativity scene full of people with black and brown skin.  I was thrilled when we came across this book at the library, and given that Silent Night is one of our favorite lullabies to sign at bedtime it's already been read repeatedly.  A simple, lovely Christmas story.

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

Amazing Grace, by Mary Hoffman

Sometimes I shy away from checking out classics from the library, they frequently tend to be dated or dull.  That was not the case with Amazing Grace.  When Grace's class decides to put on the play Peter Pan she announces that she'll play the lead, but is told by her classmates that she can't because she is neither white nor a boy.  Grace's mom and grandmother discuss with her, and when Grace auditions the class unanimously agrees that she's the perfect Peter!

It's a straightforward, realistic story is easily applicable to the current political climate - just look at what happened when Disney announced Halle Bailey (a Black woman) would play Ariel.  The story is easy to follow and doesn't condescend to children. 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

The Great Cake Mystery, by Alexander McCall Smith

Precious Ramotswe, an observant young girl in Botswana, is positive she would make a fine detective.  Luckily for her, a mystery quickly presents itself - a piece of cake goes missing at school.  Precious avoids jumping to conclusions about the culprit (unlike some of her classmates, to her dismay), and slowly pieces together that in fact the monkeys are the guilty ones!

We were thrilled to discover this easy to read chapter book set in Botswana - we always keep our eyes out for books set in any African country and our son (5 years old) was instantly engaged.  He guessed early on that the monkeys had stolen the cake - but this only made him want to keep reading (to confirm his hunch) and we finished the book quickly over the course of two days.  This is a great book for kids just getting into chapter books and for parents who are sick of poorly written easy reader books with annoying characters and dull plots (or is that just me?).

BUY HERE (or even better, request at your local library!)

Edited to add that we've since read The Mystery of Meerkat Hill and The Mystery of the Missing Lion and that my son was equally thrilled by these mysteries, while I was thrilled by how the author thoughtfully wove in lessons about kindness and poverty.

Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol Series, by Andrew Miedoso

Andres Miedoso moves next door to Desmond Cole and shortly thereafter, and somewhat reluctantly, finds himself part of the Ghost Patrol.  The town of Kersville is filled with not-too-frightening ghosts, zombies, and other odd creatures and best friends Andres and Desmond seemingly can't go anywhere without bumping into something scary, though at the end of the books the duo always ends of befriending these initially scary creatures.

Someone recommended these to me when I was searching for easy, fun chapter books with a main character who wasn't white, and when I brought the first one home from the library my son was thrilled and asked to read it immediately.  It wasn't until the end of the first book that he casually asked if Desmond was black like him.  Race isn't discussed in the books, but based on illustrations Desmond is black and based on Andres Miedoso's name he is Latino (the author's name is also Andres Miedoso and his bio notes that he returns to Kersville as needed to visit Desmond - which my son found thrilling).  This series is EXACTLY what we wanted - exciting, plot-driven books that are always fun to read and just happen to feature children of color as the main characters.  We've read the first 5 books in the series in the last two weeks; sadly there are only 7 available currently but there are 2 more slated to be released shortly and I hope this series continues for a long time!

BUY HERE (or request at your local library!)