Black History Month for Kids

A selection of novels by Black Canadian authors and non-fiction books featuring Black Canadians in history.

Updated January 25, 2025
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Africville
Grant, Shauntay
Paper Book
Winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award Winner of the Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration Finalist for a Governor General's Literary Award, Young People's Literature - Illustrated Books Finalist for a Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Books...
Africville : an African Nova Scotian community is demolished - and fights back
Wesley, Gloria Ann
Paper Book
The community of Africville was founded in the late 1800s when African Nova Scotians built homes on the Bedford Basin on the northern edge of Halifax. Africville grew to include a church, a school, and small businesses. At its peak, about 400 people lived there. The community was lively and...
I am big
Sadu, Itah
Paper Book
In the middle of the ice, a young Black hockey player finds joy in his talent and confidence in the cheers of his family, his coach, and the other players. Their support gives him the power to face down those who see him as a threat and to focus on the thrill of the game. Young people of...
Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians : inspiring stories of courage and achievement
Ruck, Lindsay
Paper Book
This fascinating, full-colour illustrated book features over 50 amazing Black people from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, sharing their incredible stories and accomplishments, past and present. Among these amazing Black Atlantic Canadians...
Beatrice and Croc Harry : a novel
Hill, Lawrence
Paper Book
"A book to treasure and share across generations." --David Chariandy, author of Brother Beatrice, a young girl of uncertain age, wakes up all alone in a tree house in the forest  How did she arrive in this cozy dwelling, stocked carefully with bookshelves and oatmeal...
Dreamer
Aliu, Akim
Paper Book
This honest, engrossing graphic memoir tells the story of professional athlete and activist Akim Aliu's incredible life as a hockey prodigy in Canada. Akim Aliu -- also known as "Dreamer" -- is a Ukrainian-Nigerian-Canadian professional hockey player whose career took him all around the...
Garden of lost socks
Edugyan, Esi
Paper Book
Two-time Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Esi Edugyan debuts her picture book, lovingly illustrated by Amélie Dubois, a whimsical story about friendship, curiosity and the magic of a vibrant community  Akosua was always told she was too nosy. Her parents loved her very much, but...
The Grover School Pledge
Taylor, Wanda
Paper Book
A true-to-life story about the pains and triumphs of growing up, perfect for readers of Renée Watson and Lisa Moore Ramée Arlaina Jefferson is eager to prove herself. Tasked with caring for her cousin's rabbit, Obeena, Arlaina knows all that stands between her and the grown-up world of...
The Halifax Explosion : 6 December 1917 at 9:05 in the Morning
Cooper, Afua.
Paper Book
CN
Hockey night in Kenya
Mutinda, Danson
Paper Book
Key Selling Points Kitoo dreams of someday playing real ice hockey and Nigosi helps him realize that sometimes dreams can come true. Hockey Night in Kenya is ultimately a story about friendship, support and having big dreams. This book addresses abandonment, parental death...
The hockey skates
Subban, Karl
Paper Book
It was almost the first day of winter, and PK still has no skates to wear. This time, PK waited impatiently for one more week before his skates arrived in the mail. With a knock, knock, knock on the door, the mailman delivered the skates in a box. PK couldn't wait to open it . . .<...
The journey of little Charlie
Curtis, Christopher Paul
Paper Book
Newbery Medalist Christopher Paul Curtis brings his trademark humor and heart to the story of a boy struggling to do right in the face of history's cruelest evils.The National Book Award finalist by Christopher Paul Curtis!Twelve-year-old Charlie is down on his luck: His sharecropper father...
Julie and the mango tree
Smith, Sade?
Paper Book
Coupled with Sayada Ramdial's bright and colorful artwork, Julie and the Mango Tree by Sadé Smith will have readers of all ages giggling--and craving a mango of their own!Julie loves all kinds of fruit, but mangoes are her absolute favorite. One sticky summer afternoon, Julie goes to the big mango...
Lone runner
McLean, Dirk
Paper Book
Set in a diverse neighborhood, this book follows Michaela as she goes from a solitary runner to an athlete who contributes to the success of her cross-country team. Discouraged by an incident at her mostly-white summer camp, Michaela comes into her own as part of her racially diverse school track...
Malaika, carnival queen
Hohn, Nadia L.
Paper Book
Malaika learns about her father, who came to Canada as a migrant farm worker when she was just a baby and who shared her love of carnival. Malaika dreams about a man with a basket of fruit and guesses that the dream is about her father. Mummy explains that her daddy passed away long ago,...
Mary Ann Shadd
Spence, Kelly
Mary Ann Camberton Shadd Cary, educator, publisher, abolitionist (born 9 October 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware; died 5 June 1893 in Washington, DC). Mary Ann Shadd was the first Black female newspaper publisher in Canada. Shadd founded and edited The Provincial Freeman. She also established a...
Meet Mary Ann Shadd
MacLeod, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Meet Mary Ann Shadd: anti-slavery activist, newspaper publisher, and social justice pioneer! The award-winning Scholastic Canada Biography series highlights the lives of remarkable Canadians whose achievements have inspired and changed the lives of those who followed. Mary Ann Shadd...
Meet Viola Desmond
MacLeod, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Meet Viola Desmond, community leader and early civil rights trailblazer! On the night of November 8th 1946, Nova Scotia businesswoman Viola Desmond stood up for her right to be in the "unofficial" whites-only section of a New Glasgow movie theatre . . . and was arrested for it. Supported...
My hair is beautiful
Grant, Shauntay
Paper Book
Natural, knotty, fluffy, frizzy, twisted, tangled, pony, puffed! A celebration of natural hair, from afros to cornrows and everything in between, My Hair is Beautiful is a joyful board book with a powerful message of self-love. Governor General's Award-nominated author...
The possible lives of WH, sailor
Junaid, Bushra
Paper Book
"What truths would you utter from your mouth If you could tell us your story"-- The Possible Lives of W.H., Sailor In this powerful and deeply moving poetic narrative, author/artist Bushra Junaid gives presence to W.H., a mysterious nineteenth-century sailor whose remains were...
The probability of everything
Everett, Sarah
Paper Book
"One of the best books I have read this year (maybe ever)." --Colby Sharp, Nerdy Book Club NPR Books We Love 2023 ^ Publishers Weekly Best of 2023 ^ Winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards for Young People's Literature A heart-wrenching middle grade debut...
Swim team
Christmas, Johnnie
Paper Book
"Combines wonderful characters and history to create a story that will make you want to dive right in!" JERRY CRAFT, author of the Newbery Medal-winning New Kid A splashy, contemporary middle grade graphic novel from bestselling comics creator Johnnie Christmas! Bree can't wait for...
Underground to Canada
Smucker, Barbara
Paper Book
Taken away from her mother by a ruthless slave trader, all Julilly has left is the dream of freedom. Every day that she spends huddled in the slave trader's wagon travelling south or working on the brutal new plantation, she thinks about the land where it is possible to be free, a land she and her...
Viola Desmond won't be budged!
Warner, Jody
Paper Book
Finalist for the 2011 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction "On behalf of the Nova Scotia government, I sincerely apologize to Mrs. Viola Desmond's family and to all African Nova Scotians for the racial discrimination she was subjected to by the justice system ... We...
The Watsons go to Birmingham : 1963
Curtis, Christopher Paul
Paper Book
During one of the most important times in the civil rights movement, one unforgettable family goes on a road trip in this Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree, from author Christopher Paul Curtis, recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. ...
Welcome to the cypher
Dill, Khodi
Paper Book
Words burn bright in this joyful celebration of rap, creativity, and self-expression. "Welcome to the cypher! Now huddle up nice and snug. You feel that circle around you? Well, that's a hip hop hug!"  Starting with beatboxes and fingersnaps, an exuberant...

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