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325 West Gaines Street, Suite 444  ·  Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400  ·  Phone: (850) 245-0503  ·  Fax: (850) 245-9530

2010 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)

  • Red Dancing Shoes, Denise Lewis Patrick and James E. Ransome
  • I Dream of Trains, Angela Johnson
  • The Moon Over Star, Dianna Hutts Aston
  • Let It Shine, Ashley Bryan
  • Before John Was a Jazz Giant, Carole Boston Weatherford
  • Uptown, Bryan Collier
  • I’ve Seen the Promised Land: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Walter Dean Myers
  • Papa’s Mark, Gwendolyn Battle Lavert
  • In the Land of Words: New and Selected Poems, Jan Spivey Gilchrist
  • Almost to Freedom, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
  • Thunder Rose, Jerdine Nolen
  • Visiting Langston, Bryan Collier
  • Freedom River, Doreen Rappaport
  • 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
  • Little Eight John, Jan Wahl
  • All Night, all Day: A Child’s First Book of African American Spirituals, Ashley Bryan
  • When I Am Old With You, Angela Johnson
  • The Patchwork Quilt, Valerie Flournoy
  • Bright Eyes, Brown Skin, Cheryl Hudson & Bernette Ford
  • 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
  • Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, Deborah Hopkinson
  • The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, Langston Hughes & Brian Pinkney
  • The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children, Gregorie Christie
  • The Invisible Hunters: A Legend from the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua, Harriet Rohmer, et al
  • Africa Dream, Eloise Greenfield
  • Mary McLeod Bethune, Eloise Greenfield
  • 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
  • The Wagon, Tony Johnston and James E. Ransome
  • 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
  • I Have Heard of a Land, Joyce Carol Thomas
  • Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra, Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • 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
  • 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
  • Maritcha, Tonya Bolden
  • Ellington Was Not a Street, Ntozake Shange & Kadir Nelson
  • The Bat Boy and His Violin, Gavin Curtis
  • 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
  • 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
  • Fly High!: The Story of Bessie Coleman, Louise Borden and Mary Kay Kroeger

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
  • 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
  • Elijah of Buxton – Christopher Paul Curtis
  • Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali – Charles R. Smith, Jr.
  • We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, Kadir Nelson
  • Keeping the Night Watch, Hope Anita Smith
  • Maizon at Blue Hill, Jacqueline Woodson
  • W.E.B. Du Bois, David Levering Lewis
  • Separate Fountains, Patti Wilson Byars

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
  • 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
  • Just Another Hero, Sharon M. Draper
  • Remember: The Journey to School Integration, Toni Morrison
  • Becoming Billie Holiday, Carole Boston Weatherford
  • Black America Series Levy County Florida, Carolyn Cohens
  • Black America Series Alachua County Florida, Lizzie Jenkins
  • Black America Series Key West Florida, Norma Jean Sawyer and Laverne Wells-Bowie
  • Black America Series Orlando, Florida, Geradline F. Thompson
  • Black America Series St. Petersburg, Florida, Sandra Rooks
  • Black America Series Tallahassee, Florida, Altermese Barnes and Ann Roberts
  • Black America Series Jackson County Florida, GA, JCTS Alumni Association
  • Black America Series Hernando County Florida, Imani D. Asukile
  • Zora in Florida, Steve Glassman and Kathryn Lee Seidel