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
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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)

My daddy is a cowboy
Seales, Stephanie
Paper Book
A Caldecott Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Book A young girl and her father share an early morning horseback ride around their city in My Daddy Is a Cowboy, an award-winning picture book celebration of "just-us time,"...

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 creators Renée Watson and Bea Jackson. Summer is here! No dark clouds in the sky, it's a perfect day for play. What joy...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

Juneteenth is
Tripplett, Natasha
Paper Book
An intimate look at Juneteenth, this story is a warm exploration of a family and a community.  Juneteenth is the smell of brisket filling the air. Juneteenth is the sounds of music, dancing, and cheering ringing from the parade outside. It is love. It is prayer...

Holiday Book (Age 5-8)

Words are magic!
Avant-garde, Zaila
Paper Book
Scripps National Spelling Bee champ Zaila Avant-garde shares her love of words with new readers in this level 1 Step Into Reading book. A SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Words are magic! Have you heard? Pick a letter. Make a word!

Early Reader (Level 1)

Showtime!
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,...

Early Reader (Level 2)

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)

One big open sky
Cline-Ransome, Lesa
Paper Book
A Newbery Honor 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...

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)

Running in flip-flops from the end of the world
Reynolds, Justin A.
Paper Book
A hilarious middle-grade from justin a. reynolds that asks: What happens when five unsupervised kids face the apocalypse under outrageously silly circumstances? When twelve-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway and his friends are left home from Beach Bash, aka the greatest party of the year,...

Children's Fiction (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 BEYONDHow 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 clever lyrics...

Children's Graphic Novel (Grades 3-5)

Warrior on the mound
Headen, Sandra W.
Paper Book
Narrated by twelve-year-old Cato, this intense and 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...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Jax Freeman and the phantom shriek
Mbalia, Kwame
Paper Book
"I loved everything about this book."--Rick Riordan, New York Times #1 best-selling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series 12-year-old Jax Freeman discovers a secret world where a diverse group of students with unique talents wield magic by summoning the power of...

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...

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
Paper Book
From rising star Tony Weaver, Jr. comes a middle-grade graphic novel memoir about an awkward preteen who loves all things geeky but struggles with mental health issues and self-doubt, perfect for fans of Jerry Craft's New Kid.Eleven-year-old Tony Weaver, Jr. loves comic books, anime, and video games...

Young Teen Graphic Novel (Grades 5-7)


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