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.
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. Back inside the store I write up receipts for Master's deliveries for Master's orders...

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)

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)

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)

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. Our hair is a lioness, born to be wild. We pride ourselves on flair...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

Glenn Burke, game changer : the man who invented the high five
Bildner, Phil
Paper Book
A "Best Book of the Year" from School Library Journal and Chicago Public Library A People's Pick for the Best LGBTQ+ Kids Books for Pride Month A Book Riot Best Recent LGBTQ+ Picture Books Selection An American...

Children's Nonfiction (Age 5-8)

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)

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)


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