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Black History Month Booklist

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watercolor paint in shades of brown and orange
February 1, 2023

February is Black History Month! We've compiled a booklist for all ages to help celebrate the importance of black history and of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture.

Click on a title to find it in our catalog; and find many more titles at cobbcat.org.

Children's Picture Books

All Because You Matter by Tami Charles

Baby Blessings by Deloris Jordan

Bedtime Bonnet by Nancy Amanda Redd

Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes

Daddy Speaks Love by Leah Henderson

Hair Love by Matthew Cherry

Happy to be Nappy by bell hooks

I Am Perfectly Designed by Karamo Brown

Mama’s Home by Shay Youngblood

Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual by Carole Boston Weatherford

Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o

We Are Here by Tami Charles

Who Will You Be? by Andrea Pippins

Woke Baby by Mahogany L. Browne

The World Belonged to Us by Jacqueline Woodson

Children's Nonfiction

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan

Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

I Am Loved by Nikki Giovanni

Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History by Vashti Harrison

Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed

Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz

One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance by Nikk Grimes

The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children by Davida Adedjouma

Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander

Children's and Preteen Chapter Books

Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz

Blended by Sharon M. Draper

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms by Jamar J. Perry

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Garcia-Williams

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander

Fibbed by Elizabeth Agyemang

Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Holler of the Fireflies by David Barclay Moore

Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender

It’s the End of the World and I’m in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds

New Kid by Jerry Craft

One Crazy Summer by Rita Garcia-Williams

The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia

The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis

Books for Teens and Young Adults

Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

March by John Lewis

Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi

One True Loves by Elise Bryant

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi

Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman by Kristen R. Lee

Right Where I Left You by Julian Winters

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Vinyl Moon by Mahogany L. Browne

X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Adult Fiction

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Anywhere You Run by Wanda Morris

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe

Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow

On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride

Yonder by Jabari Asim

You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

Adult Nonfiction

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Black Futures edited by Kimberly Drew

Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans

Buses are a Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider by Charles Person

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi

The Hill We Climb and Other Poems by Amanda Gorman

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education by Mychal Denzel Smith

The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama

The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love, & Truth edited by Wade and Virginia Hudson

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Yellow House by Sarah Broom

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism by Amber Ruffin