Children's Book Suggestions | Black History Month 2025

A few of our favorite books about Black Americans past and present published in 2024. For more book ideas, check out our Black History Month 2024 Picture Book and Chapter Book lists or browse the library catalog.

More great books are honored annually with the Children's Africana Book Award, Coretta Scott King Book Awards, and NAACP Image Awards.

Updated January 11, 2025
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Oregon City Public Library
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
The belly song
Mother Moon
Paper Book
Sing along in this joyful celebration of your baby's perfect belly. Named one of the Best Books of 2024 by Chicago Public Library! "As the pages celebrate many different kinds of human bellies, they simultaneously model a wealth of loving connections...

Board Book (Age 0-2)

They call me Teach : lessons in freedom
Cline-Ransome, Lesa
Paper Book
In this stirring and powerfully illustrated story, an enslaved young man uses his ability to read and write to educate others in the pursuit of freedom. The young man known as Teach secretly learned to read, write, and use numbers growing up alongside the master's son. And...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

The last stand
Eady, Antwan
Paper Book
The author of Nigel and the Moon, delivers a tender intergenerational story inspired by his childhood in the rural south. Here's a farm stand that represents the importance of family, community, and hope. A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BOOKPAGE, and SCHOOL...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

Brown Girl, Brown Girl
Honore, Lesle
Paper Book
This powerful and hopeful picture book-inspired by the historic election of Vice President Kamala Harris-celebrates brown and Black girls and is magnificently illustrated by a Caldecott Honor-winning artist. Brown girl, brown girl, what did you see? A...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

My hair is a book
Oso, Maisha
Paper Book
"Oso's metaphors illustrate how Black hair tells the story of those who wear it; hair announces its wearer's beauty to the world, be it cornrowed, locked, twisted, or curled...A stellar work that belongs in every collection serving young people." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)<...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

My daddy is a cowboy
Seales, Stephanie
Paper Book
Tall. High as the clouds. Strong as a horse's back. Like a cowboy. In the early hours before dawn, a young girl and her father greet their horses and ride together through the waking city streets. As they trot along, Daddy tells cowboy stories filled with fun and...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

Summer is here
Watson, Renée
Paper Book
Celebrate iconic childhood joys in this love letter to summer featuring bright, sun-drenched art, from New York Times bestselling and award-winning creators Renée Watson and Bea Jackson. Summer is here! No dark clouds in the sky, it's a perfect day for...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

Crowning glory : a celebration of black hair
Weatherford, Carole Boston
Paper Book
Celebrate the beauty of Black hair creations through the rhyming text and vibrant collage art of lauded Coretta Scott King Award winners Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes. Cornrows forming complex patterns. Shells and beads on boxy braids. A flowery 'fro that's wash and...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

Ty's travels:
Lyons, Kelly Starling.
Paper Book
Ty rocks out with friends in this new book in the Geisel Honor-winning series! Join Ty on his imaginative adventures in Ty's Travels: Showtime, a My First I Can Read story by acclaimed author and illustrator team Kelly Starling Lyons and Niña Mata. Music, imagination, and play are...

Early Reader (Level 2)

Ready? Set. Puppies!
Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux
Paper Book
The puppies are coming! This Step 2 is perfect for readers age 4 to 6 and captures the anticipation of waiting for your best friend's dog to have puppies. Will Raymond get to keep one? Raymond and Roxy love playing together--and so do their pets! One day, Raymond learns that Roxy...

Early Reader (Level 2)

One big open sky /
Cline-Ransome, Lesa
Paper Book
Three women narrate a perilous wagon journey westward that could set them free--or cost them everything they have--in this intergenerational verse novel that explores the history of the Black homesteader movement. 1879, Mississippi. Young dreamer Lettie may have her head in the...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

The secret library
Magoon, Kekla
Paper Book
An instant New York Times bestseller! Travel through time with National Book Award Finalist Kekla Magoon in a page-turning fantasy adventure about family secrets and finding the courage to plot your own life story. Since Grandpa died, Dally's days are...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

Gamerville
Christmas, Johnnie
Paper Book
A video gamer's championship aspirations are dashed when his parents send him to Camp Reset, where electronics are forbidden and you're forced to socialize, eat healthy, and spend time outside. Gamerville is a timely and vulnerable exploration of the importance of human connection...

Children's Graphic Novel (Grades 3-5)

Buckle up! /
Lindell, Lawrence,
Paper Book
Figuring out family is no easy street, especially in a divorce. Perfect for fans of New Kid and Smile, this contemporary graphic novel introduces a young boy navigating life with his dad, one car ride at a time. Lonnie is going through big changes in his life-with...

Children's Graphic Novel (Grades 3-5)

Blue stars. Mission 1, The vice principal problem
Magoon, Kekla
Paper Book
Two everyday superheroes set out to save the world--starting with their school--in an exciting new middle-grade graphic series from two award-winning authors and a debut illustrator. When cousins Riley Halfmoon and Maya Dawn move to Urbanopolis to live with their activist grandma...

Children's Graphic Novel (Grades 3-5)

Hip-Hop : the beat of America
Williams, Jarrett
Paper Book
MUSICAL REVOLUTION SWEEPS NATION AND BEYOND How did a bunch of young people from the inner city create a genre of music that became a global phenomenon? From its humble origins at house parties in the Bronx, where DJs mixed old records to create new sounds, charismatic MCs let their...

Children's Graphic Novel (Grades 3-5)

Warrior on the mound
Headen, Sandra W.
Paper Book
This intense, evocative story of racial unrest in prewar North Carolina ends with a dramatic match between white and Black little league teams. 1935. Twelve-year-old Cato wants nothing more than to play baseball, perfect his pitch, and meet Mr. Satchel Paige--the best pitcher in...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Jax Freeman and the phantom shriek
Mbalia, Kwame
Paper Book
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER! "I loved everything about this book."--Rick Riordan, New York Times #1 best-selling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series In this unique magic-school fantasy series opener by the author of the bestselling Tristan...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

The everybody experiment
Ramée, Lisa Moore
Paper Book
From the award-winning author of A Good Kind of Trouble, Lisa Moore Ramée, comes a hilarious and heartfelt young middle grade novel, in the vein of Judy Blume, about friendship, fitting in, and the ups and downs of middle school. Sure to resonate with fans of Rebecca Stead...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Art club
Doucet, Rashad
Paper Book
Inspired by the author's own childhood, this contemporary graphic novel paints a picture of an aspiring young artist on a mission to prove that the arts are worth fighting for. Dale Donavan has heard the same lecture over and over again: Art will get you nowhere in life. A kid with...

Young Teen Graphic Novel (Grades 5-7)

Timid
Todd, Jonathan
Paper Book
A semiautobiographical middle-grade graphic novel about frenemies, fitting in, and finding your voice.Cecil Hall and his family have just moved from Florida to Massachusetts, near Boston. Cecil is anxious about making friends because he doesn't know where he'll fit in. His older sister, Leah,...

Young Teen Graphic Novel (Grades 5-7)

Weirdo
Weaver, Tony, Jr./ Wibowo, Jess (ILT)/ Wibowo, Cin (ILT)
Paper Book
"A touching story of belonging." -- Publisher's Weekly, starred review"Honest, hopeful.." --Kirkus, starred review A Kirkus Best Book of the YearA School Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Publishers Weekly<...

Young Teen Graphic Novel (Grades 5-7)


Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.