2008 Black History Month Recommended Reading List

Grades PreK-3 · Grades 4-5 · Grades 6-8 · Grades 9-12

This recommended reading list, in celebration of Florida's Black History Month, highlights African-American literature.  This list provides an excellent source of suggested books for children of all ages. Just Read, Florida! makes reading a priority in Florida's public schools and among the community groups and volunteer organizations that support them.

Elementary (Grades PreK-3)

• I Dream of Trains, Angela Johnson
• I’ve Seen the Promised Land: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Walter Dean Myers
• Papa’s Mark, Gwendolyn Battle Lavert
• The Hard-Times Jar, Ethel Footman Smothers
• What’s the Hurry, Fox? And the Other Animal Stories, Zora Neale Hurston
• Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl, Virginia Hamilton
• In the Land of Words: New and Selected Poems, Jan Spivey Gilchrist
• God Bless the Child, Billy Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr.
• Almost to Freedom, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
• Thunder Rose, Jerdine Nolen
• Rap a Tap Tap: Here’s Bojangles - Think That, Leon and Diane Dillon
• Visiting Langston, Bryan Collier
• Goin’ Someplace Special, Patricia McKissack and Jerry Pinkney
• Uptown, Bryan Collier
• Freedom River, Doreen Rappaport
• Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys, Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard
• My Rows and Piles of Coins, Tololwa M. Mollel
• Black Cat, Christopher Myers
• In Daddy’s Arms I am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers, Alan Schroeder
• Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry, Ashley Bryan
• Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman, Alan Schroeder
• Running the Road to ABC, Denize Lauture
• Neeny Coming, Neeny Going, Karen English
• The Faithful Friend, Robert San Souci
• The Creation, James Wheldon Johnson
• Little Eight John, Jan Wahl
• Sukey and the Mermaid, Robert San Souci
• Working Cotton, Sherley Anne Williams
• All Night, all Day: A Child’s First Book of African American Spirituals, Ashley Bryan
• When I Am Old With You, Angela Johnson
• The Bells of Christmas, Virginia Hamilton
• An Enchanted Hair Tale, Alexis De Veaux
• Half a Moon and One Whole Star, Cresc Dragonwagon
• The Patchwork Quilt, Valerie Flournoy
• A Chair for My Mother, Vera Williams
• Anansi The Spider: A Tale from Ashanti, Gerald McDermott
• Big Mama’s, Donald Crews
• Bright Eyes, Brown Skin, Cheryl Hudson & Bernette Ford
• Daddy and I, Eloisse Greenfield
• Nina Bonita, Ana Machado
• Something Beautiful, Sharon Wyeth
• The Quilt, Ann Jonas
• Bill Pickett: Rodeo-Ridin Cowboy, Andrea Pinkney & Brian Pinkney
• Drylongso, Virginia Hamilton
• I Am Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks & James Haskins
• Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Doreen Rappaport
• Stories Huey Tells, Ann Cameron
• Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, Deborah Hopkinson
• The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, Langston Hughes & Brian Pinkney
• Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales, Julius Lester
• The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children, Gregorie Christie
• The Talking Eggs, Robert San Souci
• The Invisible Hunters: A Legend from the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua, Harriet Rohmer, et al
• C.L.O.U.D.S., Pat Cummings
• My Mama Needs Me, Mildred Pitts Walter
• Black Child, Peter Mugabane
• I’m Going to Sing: Black American Spirituals, Ashley Bryan
• Just Us Women, Jeanette Caines
• Mother Crocodile: An Uncle Amadou Tale from Senegal, Rosa Guy
• Daydreamers, Eloise Greenfield
• Grandmama’s Joy, Eloise Greenfield
• Count on Your Fingers African Style, Claudia Zaslavsky
• I Have a Sister, My Sister is Deaf, Jean W. Peterson
• Africa Dream, Eloise Greenfield
• Mary McLeod Bethune, Eloise Greenfield
• Duey’s Tale, Pearl Bailey
• Ray Charles, Sharon Bell Mathis
• Jazzy Miz Mozetta, Brenda C. Roberts
• Family Plays Music, Judy Cox
• The Moon Ring, Randy DuBurke
• Freedom Summer, Deb Wiles
• The Piano Man, Debbie Chocolate
• Everett Anderson’s Good-bye, Lucille Clifton

Elementary (Grades 4-5)

• Romare Bearden: Collage of Memories, Jan Greenberg
• Against All Odds: Artist Dean Mitchell’s Story, Betty R. James
• Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman, Nikki Grimes
• Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojouner Truth, Anne Rockwell
• In the Time of the Drums, Kim L. Siegelson
• I Have Heard of a Land, Joyce Carol Thomas
• Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra, Andrea Davis Pinkney
• I Thought My Souls Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, A Freed Girl, Joyce Hansen
• The Hunterman and the Crocodile, Baba Waguè Diakitè
• The Singing Man, Angela Shelf Medearis
• Meet Danitra Brown, Nikki Grimes
• Soul Looks Back in Wonder, Phyllis Fogelman
• The Origin of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth, David A. Anderson
• Night on the Neighborhood Street, Eloise Greenfield
• Tar Beach, Faith Ringgold
• The Road to Memphis, Mildred Taylor
• Aida, Leontyne Price
• Nathaniel Talking, Eloise Greenfield
• Mirandy and Brother Wind, Patricia McKissack
• Under the Sunday Tree, Eloise Greenfield
• Storm in the Night, Mary Stolz
• Lion and the Ostrich Chicks and Other African Folk Tales, Ashley Bryan
• All the Colors of the Race, Arnold Adoff
• What a Morning! The Christmas Story in Black Spirituals, Ashley Bryan
• The Bat Boy and His Violin, Gavin Curtis
• Her Stories, Virginia Hamilton
• Uncle Jed’s Barbershop, Margaree Mitchell
• Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, Joyce Carol Thomas
• The Great Migration: An American Story, Jacob Lawrence
• Harlem, Walter Dean Myers
• Circle of Gold, Candy Dawson Boyd
• A Little Love, Virginia Hamilton
• The Strange New Feeling, Julius Lester
• Rainbow Jordan, Alice Childress
• Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum, Ashley Bryan
• Skates of Uncle Richard, Carol Fenner
• Something on My Mind, Nikki Grimes
• Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, R. Gregory Christie

Middle School (Grades 6-8)

• The Legend of Buddy Bush, Sheila P. Moses
• Days of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue, Julius Lester
• Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl, Tonya Bolden
• Dark Sons, Nikki Grimes
• The Road to Paris, Nikki Grimes
• Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, Ben Carson
• Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States, Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack
• Locomotion, Jacqueline Woodson
• The Battle of Jericho, Sharon Draper
• The Red Rose Box, Brenda Woods
• The Land, Mildred Taylor
• Miracle’s Boys, Jacqueline Woodson
• Let It Shine! Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters, Andrea Davis Pinkney
• Francie, Karen English
• Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African American Whalers, Patricia C. & Frederick L. McKissack
• Bayard Rustin: Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movement, James Haskins
• Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters, Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack
• The Captive, Joyce Hansen
• Now is Your Time: The African American Struggle for Freedom, Walter Dean Myers
• A Thief in the Village and Other Stories, James Berry
• Which Way Freedom, Joyce Hansen
• Junius Over Far, Virginia Hamilton
• The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King
• Forged by Fire, Sharon M. Draper
• Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, Virginia Hamilton
• Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: The Story of New York’s African Burial Ground, Joyce Hansen and Gary McGowan
• I See the Rhythm, Toyomi Igus
• Heaven, Angela Johnson
• The Other Side: Shorter Poems, Angela Johnson
• Toning the Sweep, Angela Johnson
• The Dark Thirty, Southern Tales of the Supernatural, Patricia A. McKissack
• Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts, Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack
• Soujourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?, Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack
• Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World, Mildred Pitts Walter
• Let the Circle Be Unbroken, Mildred D. Taylor
• Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir, Eloise Greenfield and Lessie Jones Little
• Andrew Young: Young Man With a Mission, James Haskins
• The Way a Door Closes, Hope Anita Smith
• The Skin I’m In, Sharon Flake
• Another Way to Dance, Martha Southgate

High School (Grades 9-12)

• Copper Sun, Sharon Draper
• The Magnificent Twelve: Florida’s Black Junior Colleges, Walter L. Smith, Ph.D.
• Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem, Marilyn Nelson
• Carver: A Life in Poems, Marilyn Nelson
• Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary, Walter Dean Myers
• Mississippi Challenge, Mildred Pitts Walter
• Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Freedom Movement, Lillie Patters
• We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Led to Success, Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt and Sharon Draper
• Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers
• Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave, Virginia Hamilton
• Trouble’s Child, Mildred Pitts Walter
• The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl, Virginia Hamilton, Lena Horne, James Haskins
• The Middle Passage: White Ships Black Cargo, Tom Feelings
• This Life, Sidney Poitier
• Don’t Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday, Alexis De Veaux
• The Young Landlords, Walter Dean Myers
• James Van Der Zee: The Picture Takin’ Man, James Haskins
• Let the Lion Eat Straw, Ellease Southerland
• Cornrows, Camille Yarborough
• Benjamin Banneker, Lillie Patterson
• Barbara Jordan, James Haskins
• Darkness Before Dawn, Sharon Draper
• Coretta Scott King, Lillie Patterson
• The Story of Stevie Wonder, James Haskins
• Portia: The Life of Portia Washington Pittman, the Daughter of Booker T. Washington, Ruth Ann Stewart
• The Legend of Africana, Dorothy Robinson
• I Never Had It Made: the Autobiography of Jackie Robinson, as told, Alfred Duckett
• My Chill Wind, Janet McDonald
• Lou in the Limelight, Kristin Hunter
• Movin’ Up, Berry Gordy
• Marvin and Tige, Frankcina Glass
• Black Troubador: Langston Hughes, Charlemae Rollins
• Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace, Lillie Patterson
• Monster, Walter Dean Myers
• The First Part Last, Angela Johnson