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The inclusion of Black history and culture is essential for an accurate and true representation of American (and world) history overall. Black History Month is a time to highlight the people who have not only created foundational innovations, art, and achievements, but also organized and protested for equal rights and freedoms.

Of course, the civil rights movement and figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks are integral pieces of this history. But there are lesser-known -- and incredibly impactful -- people and contributions that illustrate an even greater breadth and depth of Black history and culture.

Below you'll find resources -- including videos, texts, lessons, podcasts, and more -- about activists, art and culture, inventors, engineers, historical events, and beyond. And to extend your search even further, don't miss the list of broader collections found at the bottom of this article. Every resource we've curated here has a suggested grade band, but many are flexible and adaptable to just about any age group. Consider the possibilities for how you might integrate these resources into your instruction (or use them at home!) during Black History Month or any time of the year.

A reminder for teachers: Navigate stories and images of oppression and violence with care. Black history is a complicated mix of both triumph and tribulations. While Black history doesn't begin or end with slavery or the injustices of racism, these harsh realities are part of it. Keep in mind your students' abilities when it comes to processing what they're reading, seeing, and listening to, and be aware that triggering topics can sometimes be more traumatic for Black and Brown kids.

Essential Sites and Curricula for All Ages

Activities and Resources for Preschool to Third Grade

Audio and Stories for Preschool to Third Grade

Listen along as James Earl Jones reads "To Be a Drum," a story of rhythm, history, and freedom.

Enjoy the African Folktales With Miss Jo Jo podcast to hear stories that originated in Africa and were passed down through generations.

Videos for Preschool to Third Grade

Hands-On Activities for Preschool to Third Grade

Activities and Resources for Third to Fifth Grade

Audio and Stories for Third Grade to Fifth Grade

Videos for Third Grade to Fifth Grade

Find out about the African American inventor Lewis Latimer, who contributed to the creation of the light bulb, telephone, and more in this YouTube video from the Fab Lab.

Check out this video and article on Dorothy Vaughan, the supervisor of a group of boundary-breaking African American women whose calculations got astronauts into space.

Through this Smithsonian video and article, get a feel for the sounds and movements, and a sense of the rich history, behind Afro-Peruvian music, a unique result of the African diaspora.

Let Flocabulary introduce George Washington Carver's life, the challenges he faced, and his accomplishments as an inventor and innovator. Then, ask students to consider how his ideas changed life for us all today.

From The Kid Should See This, learn about science educator and graduate student Adania Flemming, who studies marine life at the University of Florida. Or discover the trailblazing accomplishments of Matthew Henson, who broke boundaries as an Arctic explorer and African American.

Listen as the kids from Global Citizen share what they know about Black history.

Hands-On Activities for Third Grade to Fifth Grade

Text-Based Activities for Third Grade to Fifth Grade

Activities and Resources for Sixth to Eighth Grade

Audio and Stories for Sixth Grade to Eighth Grade

Videos for Sixth Grade to Eighth Grade

View rare film footage of daily work, play, school celebrations, gatherings, and sporting events in the all-Black towns of 1920s Oklahoma, from National Geographic's YouTube channel.

Travel back to the late 16th century with the Heroes of Color channel on YouTube to learn about Gaspar Yanga and one of the earliest rebellions of enslaved people in the Americas. Or learn about the heroic achievements of the 369th Infantry Regiment, an all-Black unit that fought for the U.S. during World Wars I and II.

Use this video from the YouTube channel Black History in Two Minutes to teach students about Shirley Chisholm, the first Black congresswoman and a champion for civil rights.

Watch this video from NBC News Learn's YouTube channel to follow the extraordinary and complex life of Marcus Garvey, whose vision of a pan-African movement continues to influence Black thinkers and culture today.

Sit down with jazz musician Robert Glasper, featured in this YouTube video from Jazz Night in America, as he shows the jazz origins of famous hip-hop samples and tracks.

Learn more about the extensive influence of the blues and its roots in Black history from this YouTube video by PBS's Sound Field.

Using this video from PBS, explore the origins, traditions, and influence of gospel music, created and celebrated weekly in Black churches across the country.

Be moved by the 400-year-old history of bomba, a style of music and dance created by enslaved people who resisted colonial culture, in this YouTube video from PBS.

Hands-On Activities for Sixth Grade to Eighth Grade

Visit this online exhibition from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to read about Frederick Douglass and see images of some of his handwritten documents.

Learn more about the history behind trap music, a ubiquitous, influential music genre, in this lesson from PBS LearningMedia.

Watch this video from Flocabulary to examine Langston Hughes' most famous poem and his use of figurative language. Then have students write their own "Harlem"-inspired poem.

Read one of the many thought-provoking stories on the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) website, and then dig into the associated collections of artifacts.

Text-Based Activities for Sixth Grade to Eighth Grade

Activities and Resources for Ninth to Twelfth Grade

Audio and Stories for Ninth to Twelfth Grade

Videos for Ninth to Twelfth Grade

Use this collection of videos from NBC News to augment what kids might already know about MLK's legacy and movement.

Watch a short video from TEDEd about civil rights activist Rosa Parks that digs into some information kids might not already know. Then use some of the comprehension questions or additional resources to extend students' learning.

Watch Flocabulary's introduction to John Lewis' life, activism, and influence on generations of others, featuring lyrics written by a ninth grader. Afterward, have students choose an event mentioned in the video and research it further.

From 60 Minutes, watch this famous exchange between MLK and journalist Mike Wallace. Ask students: What does King mean by "riots are the language of the unheard"?

Watch this video about Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics. Then use the discussion questions and worksheet to consider the role of protest in sports today.

Using this Retro Report video and text, learn about how Black women have had to fight to win and maintain their voting right.

Check out this video and article from Unladylike2020 to learn about the talented opera singer Sissieretta Jones, the first African American woman to headline at Carnegie Hall. Warning: Contains graphic content. While you're there, learn about Meta Warrick Fuller, the first African American woman recipient of a federal art commission, who was nicknamed "the sculptor of horrors" for her dark, expressive creations. Or discover the singular life and style of Gladys Bentley, a Harlem Renaissance artist whose bold performances challenged gender roles and norms.

Use this animated video from TEDEd as an introduction to James Baldwin, the influential writer who was stalked by the FBI for championing civil rights and social justice.

Watch Chris Rock's documentary Good Hair (free on Kanopy), which explores the societal and cultural ideas behind Black people's hair.

Join hip-hop artist Nas via Poetry in America as he discusses his song "N.Y. State of Mind" and considers hip-hop's place in the poetic canon. Note: Includes mature content.

Discover the origins of breakdancing and learn about its far-reaching influence in this short documentary-style video from Vox.

From Art21, step into the world of Kevin Beasley's art through this YouTube video, which explores his historical inspiration and reckons with the brutal legacy of slavery. Or experience the stunning and provocative contemporary art and performance of Abigail DeVille, whose work takes a critical look at history.

Via Crash Course on YouTube, delve into the extraordinary and inspiring history of the Haitian revolution, which saw enslaved people liberate themselves, overthrow colonial rule, and create their own country.

Dig deeper into some lesser-known history of the Black Panthers with this YouTube video from AJ+, and discover their history of community outreach and health care support, grounded in compassion and self-reliance.

Join two art historians in this YouTube video from Khan Academy as they discuss this important series of paintings about African Americans migrating north in search of work and new lives.

See how Mexican people with African ancestry reconnect with their roots through dance and performance in this YouTube video from AJ+.

Hands-On Activities for Ninth to Twelfth Grade

Text-Based Activities for Ninth to Twelfth Grade

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Help learners celebrate Black history with these videos, lessons, podcasts, and more.

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Discover the role of gospel music in shaping American culture.

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From the Church to the Charts: The Influence of Gospel Music

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February is Black History Month. Paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.

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Black Freedom Struggle in the United States:

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Introducing the Black Freedom Struggle Website | ProQuest

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The Black Freedom Struggle website is freely available to students, educators and patrons. This curated selection of primary sources is designed for teaching and learning about the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans. Developed with input from Black history scholars and advisors, its easily discoverable materials are ideal for assignments and special projects focused on U.S.

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PBS is celebrating Black History Month 2025! This collection is curated to showcase Black excellence through contributions, achievements, and ideas across core subjects and eras. These classroom resources aim to inspire educators to intentionally include Black history and stories in all curricula, using PBS LearningMedia as a tool in doing so, and celebrate Black history this month — and all year long.
Explore videos, media galleries, lesson plans, and more for students!

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Explore why blues is considered the foundation of modern music.

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Is Blues the Mother of All Modern Music?

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Bring African-American culture & history into your curriculum

All people, regardless of race or place, deserve the same rights and freedoms. For too long, Black and brown people in America have been denied equality because of the color of their skin. To help students understand the reality of Black people's experiences in American history, their impact on American culture, and to celebrate their achievements, we've compiled a selection of lesson plans that cover a variety of subjects that can be adapted to fit multiple grade levels.

If you're commemorating Black History Month in your classroom consider preparing by reading Learning For Justice's Do's and Don'ts of Teaching Black History and Black History Month is Over. Now What?, and listening to our podcast on teaching Black history meaningfully (below) to ensure students get the most out of Black history lessons.

Lesson Plans

Grades K-5

Lesson Plans & Activities

LESSON PLANS

National Museum of African American History and Culture's Learning Labs
The Smithsonian's free, interactive platform provides ways to explore well-known and lesser-known moments of history by utilizing objects, documents, imagery, and videos to enhance content knowledge, hone historical thinking skills and inspire users to see themselves as agents of change. (Free account registration required)

ACTIVITIES

Who is Claudette Colvin?
Nine months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus, Claudette Colvin refused to move for white passengers and was forcibly removed from a Montgomery, Alabama, bus and jailed. Learn more about her story.

Background Resources

SOCIAL STUDIES

African American History Month Exhibits & Collections
Resources covering art and design, baseball, civil rights, culture, folklife, military, music and performing arts, religion, slavery, and resource guides.

W. E. B. Du Bois: Online Resources
Includes digital materials related to W. E .B. Du Bois and links to external Web sites.

Separate Is Not Equal - Brown v. Board of Education
History, images, and other resources covering the historic Supreme Court ruling ending segregation and ensuring opportunity in education.

Africans in America
Images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries. The site provides teacher's and youth guides. The four-part series may be in local libraries.

Black History - Biography - Celebrate Black History Month & People
Biographies, timelines, photos, and videos on notable African Americans.

The Awakening of Norman Rockwell This article examines Norman Rockwell's career and how his painting, The Problem We All Live With, for the January 14, 1964 issue of Look magazine was a turning point in this career and reflected his unexpected politicization in the 1960s.

ARTS

Poems to Celebrate Black History Month
Poems and articles by African-Americans.

The History of Hip-Hop
A collection of interviews from National Public Radio (NPR) that chronicle the seminal people and events in the hip-hop movement.

African American Visual Art and the Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement (BAM) began in the mid-1960s to provide a new vision of African Americans. This site provides images galleries a theoretical essay, timeline, and links to other online art sources. Note: the top banner links are dead but the bottom links are functional.

The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed
African American and Global African history resources.

SCIENCE

10 Black Scientists that Science Teachers Should Know About
A list from PBS Education of some of the top Black scientists, engineers, inventors, and mathematicians that includes links to media resources to help you bring their work-and stories-into your classroom.

8 Black Inventors Who Made Daily Life Easier
This blog post outlines some of the lesser-known but vital contributions of Black inventors.

SPORT

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: Resources for Teachers
Before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball there was Negro League Baseball. This site features history, a timeline, photos, and teacher resources.

African American Athletes
Brief biographies and film clips of outstanding African American athletes. Don't miss the links to legal and political figures, scientists and educators, activists, artists and writers, entertainers, and musicians and singers.

Quizzes

Printables

Video

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (68 minutes)
Considered the oldest black neighborhood in America, Faubourg Tremé is the origin of the southern civil rights movement and the birthplace of jazz.

Books

Picture the Dream: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Children's Books
A teacher's resource kit from the High Museum

A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story by Sharon Langley and Amy NathanYoung Sharon hears the story of how she, after a series of protests to integrate the park, is the first African American to ride on the carousel at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in 1963.

Because Claudette by Tracey Baptiste
This picture book biography celebrates both Claudette Colvin, whose teen-aged activism launched the Montgomery bus boycott, and the power of collective action.
Author Tracey Baptiste shares how to make Black history accessible to young readers:
Carter Reads the Newspaper by Deborah Hopkinson
Meet the "father of Black History," Dr. Carter G. Woodson, and discover the experiences that shaped his passion.

Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson and Her Secret School by Janet Halfmann
Born into slavery, Lilly Ann secretly learned to read and write from her master's children-and then read everything she could get her hands on. Wishing to share her knowledge with others, she secretly taught hundreds of other enslaved people despite the great risks.

Find African American booklists from Read Across America.

Grades 6-8

Lesson Plans & Activities

LESSON PLANS

Teaching Hard History
These resources for middle- and high-school educators include Learning for Justice's grades 6-12 framework, as well as student-facing videos and primary source texts to help all students grasp the historical significance of slavery. Educators will also find teaching tools and professional development resources.

PBS Black History Lesson Plans
These lesson plans and resources cover topics ranging from civil rights events to discussions about race in current events. These lessons are appropriate for history, ELA and social studies classrooms.

National Museum of African American History and Culture's Learning Labs
The Smithsonian's free, interactive platform provides ways to explore well-known and lesser-known moments of history by utilizing objects, documents, imagery, and videos to enhance content knowledge, hone historical thinking skills and inspire users to see themselves as agents of change. (Free account registration required)

ACTIVITIES

The Underground Railroad: Journey to Freedom
The Underground Railroad was the network used by enslaved black Americans to obtain their freedom in the 30 years before the Civil War (1860-1865).

Background Resources

SOCIAL STUDIES

African American History Month Exhibits & Collections
Resources covering art and design, baseball, civil rights, culture, folklife, military, music and performing arts, religion, slavery, and resource guides.

W. E. B. Du Bois: Online Resources
Includes digital materials related to W. E .B. Du Bois and links to external Web sites.

Separate Is Not Equal - Brown v. Board of Education
History, images, and other resources covering the historic Supreme Court ruling ending segregation and ensuring opportunity in education.

Africans in America
Images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries. The site provides teacher's and youth guides. The four part series may be in local libraries.

Black History - Biography - Celebrate Black History Month & People
Biographies, photos, and videos of notable African Americans.

The Awakening of Norman Rockwell
This article examines Norman Rockwell's career and how his painting, The Problem We All Live With, for the January 14, 1964 issue of Look magazine was a turning point in this career and reflected his unexpected politicization in the 1960s.

ARTS

Poems to Celebrate Black History Month
Poems and articles by African-Americans.

The History of Hip-Hop
A collection of interviews from National Public Radio (NPR) that chronicle the seminal people and events in the hip-hop movement.

African American Visual Art and the Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement (BAM) began in the mid-1960s to provide a new vision of African Americans. This site provides images galleries a theoretical essay, timeline, and links to other online art sources. Note: the top banner links are dead but the bottom links are functional.

The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed
African American and Global African history resources.

SCIENCE

10 Black Scientists that Science Teachers Should Know About
A list from PBS Education of some of the top Black scientists, engineers, inventors, and mathematicians that includes links to media resources to help you bring their work-and stories-into your classroom.

8 Black Inventors Who Made Daily Life Easier
This blog post outlines some of the lesser-known but vital contributions of Black inventors.

SPORTS

African American Athletes
Brief biographies and film clips of outstanding African American athletes. Don't miss the links to legal and political figures, scientists and educators, activists, artists and writers, entertainers, and musicians and singers.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: Resources for Teachers
Before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball there was Negro League Baseball. This site features history, a timeline, photos, and teacher resources.

Quizzes

Printables

Audio & Video

AUDIO

Blues Journey (23:17 minutes)
This four part audio series explores the history of the blues.

VIDEO

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (68 minutes)
Considered the oldest black neighborhood in America, Faubourg Tremé is the origin of the southern civil rights movement and the birthplace of jazz. Check local listings to see when it airs on a local PBS station.

Forgotten Genius (120 minutes)
Chemist Percy Lavon Julian struggled against racism as he pursued research with steroids and alkaloids and helped to create affordable and effective treatments for rheumatoid arthritis and glaucoma.

Through the Window and into the Mirror: Narratives of African American STEM Professionals
This video conversation series shares the experiences of African American STEM professionals today.

Books

Picture the Dream: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Children's Books
A teacher's resource kit from the High Museum

Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B. Little relate their Black family's challenges and triumphs from 1927 to 1968 while struggling as sharecroppers, living under Jim Crow, and fighting for Civil Rights in Mississippi.

When Winter Robeson Came by Brenda Woods
To figure out what happened to his missing father, thirteen-year-old Winter travels to Los Angeles from Mississippi to visit his cousin Eden and her family during the summer of the Watts Riots in 1965.

Find African American booklists from Read Across America.

Grades 9-12

Lesson Plans & Activities

LESSON PLANS

Teaching Hard History
These resources for middle- and high-school educators include Learning for Justice's grades 6-12 framework, as well as student-facing videos and primary source texts to help all students grasp the historical significance of slavery. Educators will also find teaching tools and professional development resources.

Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten
Through a series of video clips and activities, students can learn about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and how the community of Tulsa is coming to terms with its past, present, and future.

PBS Black History Lesson Plans
These lesson plans and resources cover topics ranging from civil rights events to discussions about race in current events. These lessons are appropriate for history, ELA and social studies classrooms.

National Museum of African American History and Culture's Learning Labs
The Smithsonian's free, interactive platform provides ways to explore well-known and lesser-known moments of history by utilizing objects, documents, imagery, and videos to enhance content knowledge, hone historical thinking skills and inspire users to see themselves as agents of change. (Free account registration required)

ACTIVITIES

The Underground Railroad: Journey to Freedom
The Underground Railroad was the network used by enslaved black Americans to obtain their freedom in the 30 years before the Civil War (1860-1865).

Background Resources

SOCIAL STUDIES

African American History Month Exhibits & Collections
Resources covering art and design, baseball, civil rights, culture, folklife, military, music and performing arts, religion, slavery, and resource guides.

W. E. B. Du Bois: Online Resources
Includes digital materials related to W. E .B. Du Bois and links to external Web sites.

Separate Is Not Equal - Brown v. Board of Education
History, images, and other resources covering the historic Supreme Court ruling ending segregation and ensuring opportunity in education.

Africans in America
Images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries. The site provides teacher's and youth guides. The four part series may be in local libraries.

Black History - Biography - Celebrate Black History Month & People
Biographies, photos and videos of notable African Americans.

The Awakening of Norman Rockwell
This article examines Norman Rockwell's career and how his painting, The Problem We All Live With, for the January 14, 1964 issue of Look magazine was a turning point in this career and reflected his unexpected politicization in the 1960s.

ARTS

Poems to Celebrate Black History Month
Poems and articles by African-Americans.

Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns
Online activities and biographies, transcripts of many interviews with musicians, K-12 lesson plans, and a music study guide for grades 5-8.

The History of Hip-Hop
A collection of interviews from National Public Radio (NPR) that chronicle the seminal people and events in the hip-hop movement.

African American Visual Art and the Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement (BAM) began in the mid-1960s to provide a new vision of African Americans. This site provides images galleries a theoretical essay, timeline, and links to other online art sources. Note: the top banner links are dead but the bottom links are functional.

The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed
African American History by region.

SCIENCE

10 Black Scientists that Science Teachers Should Know About
A list from PBS Education of some of the top Black scientists, engineers, inventors, and mathematicians that includes links to media resources to help you bring their work-and stories-into your classroom.

8 Black Inventors Who Made Daily Life Easier
This blog post outlines some of the lesser-known but vital contributions of Black inventors.

SPORT

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: Resources for Teachers
Before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball there was Negro League Baseball. This site features history, a timeline, photos, and teacher resources.

African American Athletes
Brief biographies and film clips of outstanding African American athletes. Don't miss the links to legal and political figures, scientists and educators, activists, artists and writers, entertainers, and musicians and singers.

Quizzes

Printables

Audio & Video

AUDIO

Blues Journey (23:17 minutes)
This four part audio series explores the history of the blues.

VIDEO

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (68 minutes)
Considered the oldest black neighborhood in America, Faubourg Tremé is the origin of the southern civil rights movement and the birthplace of jazz. Check local listings to see when it airs on a local PBS station.

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (220 minutes)
Jack Johnson was the first African American boxer to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World. The website includes the story of Johnson's life and career, a timeline, and media gallery. The DVD may be available in local libraries.

Through the Window and into the Mirror: Narratives of African American STEM Professionals
This video conversation series shares the experiences of African American STEM professionals today.

Books

Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
An essential account of the Black Panthers as militant revolutionaries, social activists, and human rights advocates working to defend and protect their community.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds; adapted from Stamped from the Beginning by and with an introduction from Ibram X. Kendi
Using humor and a conversational style, author Jason Reynolds deftly reworks Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning, exposing young adult readers to the history of America's racist past that textbooks leave out.

Find African American booklists from Read Across America.

Teaching Black History, Meaningfully

How you can make your Black history lessons more meaningful, unique, and powerful for your students? We asked Colorado social studies teacher Kevin Adams to join us for a discussion about breaking stale patterns when teaching Black history and shaping your lessons to fit your classroom and community. Listen to Kevin's advice and experiences in this 36 minute School Me Podcast.

Black History Month: Books and More for K-12 Students

The following resources from NEA's partners at WETA highlight books and classroom resources highlighting Black history and culture.

Reading Rockets: Booklists for Elementary
Celebration and Remembrance: Children's Books About Black Lives
This collection includes picture book biographies of a young boy who shipped himself to freedom during the Civil War, a trailblazing pilot, a brilliant writer - and a sensitive but honest retelling of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. You'll also meet Milo, who realizes on a subway ride to visit his mom that you can't know someone just by looking at them.
People Make the Difference: A Celebration of Black History Month
These are stories of turbulent times in the United States. Each book is told with a young audience in mind and presents a slice of history and highlights the impact of real individuals.

For additional books and resources, see:

AdLit: Booklists for Middle and High School
Black Characters and Social/Cultural Themes
These books for middle grade and young adults feature stories across a range of genres from dynamic authors including Jason Reynolds, Angie Thomas, Ibi Zoboi, Renée Watson, Nic Stone, Nicola Yoon, Rita Garcia-Williams, Kekla Magoon, Kacen Callender, Jerry Craft, and Justina Ireland.

For additional ideas, see the following resources:

AdLit: Author Interviews

Stay Informed We'll come to you

We're here to help you succeed in your career, advocate for public school students, and stay up to date on the latest education news. Sign up to stay informed

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Bring African-American culture & history into your curriculum

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Learn about jazz's influence on the development of hip-hop music.

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Robert Glasper: “Jazz is the mother of hip-hop” | JAZZ NIGHT IN AMERICA

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Understand the cultural significance of Puerto Rican Bomba music.

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What historical influences shaped Bomba music?

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How is Bomba music used in Puerto Rican cultural celebrations today?

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Why Puerto Rican Bomba Music Is Resistance

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Explore the origins of Afro-Mexican dance and its cultural impact.

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Afro-Mexicans: Dancing Their Way Back To Their Roots

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Learn some traditional West African dance steps with Ms. Yvonne.

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How the Bronx brought breaking to the world

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How the Bronx brought breaking to the world

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Praise for African Town:

A 2022 Great Reads from Great Places Reading List Pick (AL)

★ "The authors have done a remarkable job of weaving the stories of the characters together and telling the story from both the perspective of the slaves and the people who orchestrated their purchase. Though this story is fictional it is based on a vast amount of research that was done on the actual people who participated in this story. . . This story will inspire readers to do some research to find out more about the real events that took place. . . Not to be missed." - School Library Connection, starred review

★ "Inspired by the true story of the last American slave ship, African Town is an epic . . . compelling novel that doubles as an important historic document, invaluable for both classroom use and independent reading." - Booklist, starred review

★ " African Town is a book that should be both taught and treasured."- BookPage, starred review

★ "This gripping novel . . . [is] told from the perspectives of a myriad characters directly and indirectly involved in this event . . . where each unique voice contributes to the greater whole. Carefully executed passages appear in various forms of free verse and poetry, and each one is specific to the particular character represented. This choice makes the individual contributors not only come alive but also stand out from one another as the narrative progresses. Extensively researched and purposefully designed, this book brings together details of events from 1859 to 1901 and culminates in several pages of back matter that reinforce the entire work. VERDICT This honest, heartrending, and inspiring story is an important and necessary contribution to historical fiction collections for young adult readers." - School Library Journal, starred review

"An ambitious verse novel told in many voices . . . The authors employ a range of poetic forms, resulting in an insightful, quickly paced telling that centers tradition and resilience." - Publishers Weekly

"The highly personal stories in verse reveal the different aspects of this illegal trade and the impact on both the Black enslaved people and the White crew members. . . The Africans' attempts to hold true to their home cultures and traditions-most were Yoruba-as they try to adapt to their new reality come across most powerfully. Enhanced by rich backmatter, this is a strong addition to literature about slavery." -"A thoughtful portrait of how trauma informs and inhibits identity making. The end matter is a wealth of fascinating information, from the author's note that details Waters and Lathams' research process, to a list that elaborates on the characters' lives, to an account of what modern day Africatown (formerly Africa Town) looks like." - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

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African Town by Charles Waters, Irene Latham: 9780593322888 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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Praise for African Town: A 2022 Great Reads from Great Places Reading List Pick (AL) ★ "The authors have done a remarkable job of weaving the stories of the characters together and telling the story from both the perspective of the slaves and the people who orchestrated their purchase.

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Praise for All the Days Past, All the Days to Come

* "Taylor deftly sketches the strong characters of this tight-knit, though increasingly far-flung, family, and offers insights into seismic social movements and systematic oppression in the grim realities of racism faced by the family." - PW

* "Taylor is unsparing in her depiction of the years of segregation and of the Black experience of white racism, bigotry, and injustice ... this never-didactic book is irresistibly readable, while the richly realized, highly empathic characters are unforgettable. Taylor's remarkable novel is, in sum, that rare exception: an absolutely indespensible book." - Booklist

"Taylor ( Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry) has captivated legions of readers with award-winning masterful tales of the Logan family for over 40 years ... Readers will fall in love with the Logans, whether for the first time or again, with this important conclusion to a literary era." - School Library Journal

* "This story also gives readers an up-close and personal view of key events of the civil rights movement. In this Logan swan song, Taylor is at her best. Surely the crown jewel of the Logan family Saga." -

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All the Days Past, All the Days to Come by Mildred D. Taylor: 9780399257308 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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Praise for All the Days Past, All the Days to Come * "Taylor deftly sketches the strong characters of this tight-knit, though increasingly far-flung, family, and offers insights into seismic social movements and systematic oppression in the grim realities of racism faced by the family."

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A William C. Morris Award Finalist “Brown has written a guidebook of survival and wonder.”—The New York Times “Just brilliant.”—Kirkus ReviewsHeavily a…

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Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1
ON THE NEWS, they keep playing the video. The cops are striking the Black man with their boots and batons across the soft of his body and the hard of his skull, until I guess they felt like they'd truly broken him, and, sure enough, they had. Four of the cops who beat him are on trial right now, a trial that some say is a battle for the very soul of the city, or even the country itself. It's something I should give a shit about, but I don't-not now.

Right now, birds chirp, palm trees sway, and it's the kinda Friday where the city seems intent on being a postcard of itself. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch are on the radio singing "Good Vibrations," and it's no Beach Boys, but it'll do. Heather and I do the running man and hump the air to the beat; this even though she's told us, in no uncertain terms, that this song is lame, and the rest of us have terrible taste in music. We're several weeks away from being done with high school, and when I think about it too hard, it terrifies me. So right now I'm trying really hard not to care about anything at all.

After we exhaust ourselves, Heather and I collapse on the old pool chairs with their broken slats. The plastic creates geometry on my skin. Heather is pudgy and sometimes doesn't shave her pits. I can see the dark of her hair in patches in the center of her pasty outstretched arms. How she manages to stay that pale given how long and how often we bake ourselves, I don't know. It's a spectacular feat of whiteness. Her lime-green toenail polish is chipped so that each nail vaguely resembles a state in the Midwest. Courtney's pool vaguely resembles a kidney.

Across from us, Kimberly and Courtney stretch their bodies out across two fat plastic donuts that are pink and tacky and rainbow sprinkled. They float into each other's orbits and back out again. Every so often they splash water at each other and shriek, "Omigod, stop it!"

Heather yells, "Jesus, get a room already."

Courtney laughs and squeezes Kimberly's boob like it's a horn.

They've ditched class two times a week for the last month. I don't ditch nearly as often as my friends do. But my parents and I are supposed to meet my crazy sister's new husband tonight, and it's gonna be a doozy of an evening, so it kinda felt like I owed it to my sanity to not be at school today.

These are the places we go-the mall, somebody's pool, or our favorite, the beach. Our parents hate Venice because it's dirty and there are too many homeless people, tourists, and boom boxes blasting, which means we love it. We flop across our boogie boards and stare into the horizon. Occasionally, a wave comes and we'll half-heartedly ride it into the sand, our knees scraping against the grain. Then we stand, recover our bikinis from our butt cheeks, and charge back into the water like Valkyries. Afterward, we eat at this place the size of my closet, where even the walls are greasy. The interior is bloodred and peeling, and a fat Italian caricature in neon announces, "PIZZA!" Just in case you couldn't tell. The previous owner, Georgi, was a skinny Italian with a villainous mustache who gave us free cookies; now the owner is a skinny Korean named Kim who does not.

After we eat, we watch the men with muscles like boulders under their skin, all of them so glazed and brown that the Black men don't look so different from the white men and everything in between. Most of them lift barbells, but some of them lift and balance on top of each other, a grunting tangle of bodies in short shorts and muscle tees. Last weekend, one of the men grabbed Kimberly and lifted her up to the sky like an offering.

Afterward he tried to convince us to come back to his place, like we would be dumb enough to go just because he was blond and tan and could balance like a circus elephant.

"I've got alcohol," he said.

"Tempting, but no," Heather said.

"I wasn't talking to you anyway," he said.

"Ew, we're only seventeen," Courtney yelled when he grabbed at her.

"Then maybe you shouldn't walk around looking like that," he snapped back.

Heather kneed him in the nuts; then we took off running down the boardwalk.

"Hey, you little sluts!"

Tourists with sunscreened noses took pictures of us running, our heads thrown back with laughter. But when we were far enough away, we crossed our arms in front of our chests, and Courtney bought a muscle tee with a kitten in a bikini that said "Venice, CA" from a nearby vendor. She threw it over herself like a security blanket.

That's why we decided to go to Courtney's house today. Here, we can wear our string bikinis like highlighters, bright neon signs that introduce us as women. It's better that there's nobody around to introduce us to.

Courtney gets out of the pool and walks over to where Heather and I lie on the deck chairs. She prances like the show pony she is across the hot concrete and squishes her butt next to mine until we're both on the chair together. We're so close I can feel her heartbeat. The hairs on her body are fine and blond; she shimmers a bit.

Courtney threads her arm through mine. The water from her body feels good against my skin.

"Would you rather... make out with Mr. Holmes, or with Steve Ruggles?" Kimberly's stomach is already bright red. She burns easily, and once, after we went to Disneyland, she spent the whole week shedding herself like a snake.

"Both. At the same time," Heather deadpans.

Steve Ruggles is built like a Twinkie, round and a little jaundiced. He sucks at intervals along the length of his arms, giving himself little purple bruises like lipstick smears. He has always been nice to me, but he's also undeniably strange, a boy who kisses himself while we learn about the Battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Holmes is our AP physics teacher, and half his face is cut into jagged ridges like the cliffs along the ocean. The rumor is he was in a fire as a baby. Somebody else said it was a laboratory explosion. Both seem like superhero origin stories, and Mr. Holmes does kinda carry himself like somebody with a secret life. Although maybe that's just because he's different, and sometimes being different means hiding pieces of yourself away so other people's mean can't find them. Occasionally in class, I used to close one eye and see one half of him, then close the other to try to see the other half, like when you look at one of those charts at the eye doctor's. When I did that for long enough, both the scars and the good started to fade, so his face was a soft, mostly kind blur. Anyway, I think he caught me once, and so now I keep both eyes open wider than usual around him.

"Leave them alone," I say.

"I bet Mr. Holmes would be a good lay. Ugly guys try harder," Kimberly says. Kimberly acts like she knows everything about everything, even sex, which she's never had.

"So do you think I should do the entire thing or, like, leave a strip?" she says. The moles down the side of her sunburned body look like chocolate chips in strawberry ice cream.

"Leave your muff alone," Heather says.

Kimberly is getting her hoo-ha waxed for prom next week, and you'd think she was going in for open-heart surgery.

"I think a strip looks good," she says.

"Definitely." Courtney agrees with everything Kimberly says. Their moms are best friends, and they were born two weeks apart. They're more like sisters than friends. Kimberly's first name is actually Courtney, too, 'cause their moms wanted their daughters to be twinsies. For a while, we called them Courtney One and Courtney Two, until Courtney Two had a growth spurt in sixth grade and everybody started calling her Big Courtney. That's when she started going by her middle name. Kimberly is superskinny, tall, and blond; Courtney is skinny-ish, short, and blond. Both have fake noses, and I've known them since the first day of school when we were five and Kimberly (then Courtney Two) still wet the bed.

Growing older with other people means stretching and growing and shrinking in all the right or wrong places so that sometimes you look at your friend's face and it's like a fun-house mirror reflection of what it used to be. Like, I used to have buckteeth that pushed their way into the world well before the rest of me, and a big-ass bobblehead on a superskinny body. I think I've mostly grown into myself now-though I do worry that my head might still be a tad big. That's the stuff you can see, though. It's easier to see those changes in yourself than what happens on the inside. Easier to see that stuff in other people, too.

For instance, now Courtney and Kimberly aren't into much other than themselves and boys, but Courtney used to be big into bugs. She used to collect roly-polies and ladybugs and sometimes these nasty-looking beetles. And then when we were in junior high, she got big into lepidopterology, which is all about butterflies and moths and stuff. It's a bit morbid, if you ask me, taking beautiful things and pinning them down to be admired. But that's kinda like what happens to some girls between junior high and high school, when being pretty gets in the way of being a full person.

I miss what we used to talk about then, when we'd have sleepovers, our sleeping bags like cocoons, and play Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board and lift each other up higher and higher still with the tips of our fingers. I used to yammer endlessly about horses, even in junior high when my friends were more into the idea of riding boys. As far as I was concerned, Jason R. was all right, but he couldn't cleanly jump a triple bar. And as far as I knew, he didn't nuzzle you as though you were the only person in the world when you fed him baby carrots. And when Jason was drenched in sweat, it definitely didn't look majestic, even if Courtney and all the rest of the eighth-grade girls begged to differ. Eventually, I took a jump too fast and fell and broke my clavicle right before graduating from eighth grade. I stopped riding then, which I think my parents secretly didn't mind too much, 'cause they were paying a buttload for lessons. I was afraid that the next time I fell, I'd break my neck. I don't remember being afraid much before that. Anyway, Jason R. tried to make out with me at a party last year, but he's not anywhere near as cute as he was in eighth grade and he smells like spit, so I politely declined.

The other day, I leaned in to Courtney and said, "Remember your butterfly collection?" She scrunched up her new nose, frowned, and said, "That was so lame. Why would you even bring that up?" As if instead of whispering about butterflies I'd told the whole school how she'd wet her sleeping bag at my house that one time in junior high.

We're cheerleaders, and that makes some people think we're stupid, but we're not. Our bodies are power-like what I feel in my thighs when I bend and throw my full weight into a back tuck, that rush of blood to my head as for a few moments I feel weightless, knees tucked into my chest, skirt flying, before gravity catches up to me. Right there, in a tumbling pass, is the light and heavy of being a girl all at once.

"?'Woman is the nigger of the world,'?" Heather declared one day at lunch while Kimberly and Courtney tried on each other's lip gloss. It was around the time she stopped shaving her pits. At first I thought maybe I'd heard her wrong. But I know what that word feels like in my ears, the way my heart beats faster when I hear it. Even so, I tried to rationalize it. "I'm a Jewess and you're a Negress," she used to say as a joke. For a little while in ninth grade she even called us the two "Esses." I think it was her way of trying to find the black humor in the black numbers tattooed up her bubbe 's forearm, the black humor in my Black skin.

Courtney sighed and said, "Don't say that word with Ashley sitting right here."

"It's cool. I get what she means," I said. I'm always saying things are cool when maybe they aren't. Sometimes I have so much to say that I can't say anything at all.

The doorbell rings and it's the boys. Things were easier before them. The first boy came in sixth grade. Travis Wilson and Courtney walked around school hand in hand and even kissed at the spring formal before they broke up that summer, when she decided he was taking up too much of her time. The second boy came the next fall. Brandon Sanders wasn't so bright, but he was pretty, and Kimberly liked having him around because she was going through her awkward phase when everybody called her Big Courtney. She needed to feel pretty. To feel wanted. I think that's why she let him touch her boobs, and down below, too, which he then told the whole school about so that the boys ran around saying "Sniff my fingers" as a joke for a month straight. We became known as the "fast" girls, which meant that the other girls talked shit about us, but also wanted to be us. The third boy came for Heather. Charlie Thomas played in a band in his garage, and Heather would sit around and listen to them practice. Sometimes she would drag us along, too. Her relationship with Charlie ended when she caught him with the lead singer, Keith, and we probably should've seen that coming. Soon enough we were under attack, and there were more boys and more boys still. Boys with muscles. Boys with money. Funny boys. Skinny boys. Boys who were men and should've known better. Boys who told me how cool I was and asked if they should buy my friends red roses or pink roses or no roses at all. Boys at school dances who brushed up against my fingertips and thighs and told me how pretty I was before running off to dark corners with my blond friends.

Our boys are drunk.

Michael immediately walks over to the boom box and turns off our good vibrations. In the front yard, you can hear the hum of Courtney's gardener pushing a leaf blower across the lawn.

"This song is shit, you guys," he says, fumbling with the radio dial.

Michael is Kimberly's douche boyfriend. He's got these big, beautiful, sleepy eyes that always look like they're on the verge of winking at you. But it's not that you're in on any joke, it's that you are the joke. Like, if we were one of those third-grade coat hanger Styrofoam solar-system dioramas, he thinks he's the sun and Kimberly is the Earth, even though Earth isn't all that important unless you're on it. He's joined by Trevor, because Michael and Trevor are best friends who go everywhere together. Trevor is tall, with floppy hair that he lets fall into his face before he pushes it back. Michael is shorter, with tightly curled hair and muscles like a pit bull. He's on the wrestling team, but nobody much cares about the wrestlers. Michael is handsome because his face comes together in a way that people think is interesting, which is why people care about him even though his sport is full of boys in leotards bending each other into pretzels and shoving their skindogs in each other's faces.

Kimberly and Michael have been together since the end of ninth grade, before he shot up in height, so that for a while she was very tall and he was very short, but they were both beautiful, so nobody gave 'em too much shit. Kimberly has already picked out their children's names-Christy, Linda, and Naomi, after the models. And if they pop out a boy, his name will be Georgi, after the Italian who gave us free cookies. I think Kimberly mostly likes Michael because he's from New York and doesn't give a fuck, and she spends her summers there with her father. He wooed her and all the rest of us with those gruff vowels that drag out around corners and stop abruptly against consonants. Later, we found out that his real accent isn't nearly that thick and that he'd stolen those vowels from the outer boroughs. But by then it didn't matter; Kimberly was hooked. Heather says it's classic daddy issues.

We know Michael and Trevor about as well as you can know boys our age, by which I mean we laugh at their jokes and yell ugh when they annoy us and don't rat them out when they do truly stupid shit, like light branches on fire and set them in the middle of the road just to see how passing cars respond. Honestly, sometimes being friends with boys our age is exhausting. It feels like it's a lot of listening to a bunch of jibber jabber about everything they like and why what we like is silly. Just because sometimes our music comes wrapped in glitter doesn't mean it's empty.

Michael finally decides on Power 106. He raises his hands in the air and they become weapons, his thumb and index fingers cocked like two guns.

He drunkenly swaggers through the lyrics he doesn't know. Like I said, Michael grew up partially in New York, so he likes to pretend he's more street savvy than the rest of us, even though he grew up in Midtown and lives in Brentwood.

Trevor joins in at the chorus, "?'Here is something you can't understand-how I could just kill a man! Here is something you can't understand-how I could just kill a man!'?"

They yell a few more verses and then run and cannonball into the pool.

Kimberly giggles at her boyfriend, and Courtney yells, "What the fuck?" because now she's wet again.

A plane flies overhead. Trevor traces its path through the sky with his finger.

"God, I can't get wait to get out of this shithole," Trevor says. "Move somewhere with a little fucking culture."

He just got his acceptance letter from NYU three days ago, and all of a sudden now everything about Los Angeles and California sucks. He also went to India with his parents last summer and now he's oh so deep and a vegetarian. Kimberly and Michael make out across from me, which is awkward enough, but even more so after what happened last week. Normally I'd be talking, too, but the deeper she thrusts her tongue into his mouth, the more I feel like a dog with a mouthful of peanut butter.

"LA has plenty of culture," Heather says.

"Yeah? Like what?"

"I mean, maybe if you actually ventured out of the Westside..."

"Dude, just 'cause you've gone to a taco stand or two doesn't mean you know shit, either."

Trevor and Heather are always fighting, mostly because both can be equally insufferable. They both act like they're the only ones who watch CNN or read the newspaper and the rest of us know nothing about life just because we can't quote Sonic Youth deep cuts. Heather says the rest of us are book smart but not life smart, that we're sheltered from life's realities. But, like, I'm Black. I'm not that sheltered.

"You guys want to go somewhere else?" Michael says. On his left ear are three freckles and a sunburn that gets worse by the minute.

"Venice?"

"Mars."

"The Beverly Center?"

"God, you guys are so lame sometimes."

"Shut up and shave your pits."

"Nobody's ever home at the house down the street from mine. Some Saudi prince bought it and they're doing major construction on it. They're, like, never there. And they've got a bitchin' pool."

"Why do we need to go to another pool when we're already at a pool?"

"?'Cause it has a slide and a cave and shit?"

Michael lives several blocks over, and so we decide to walk. Days like this, the salt of the ocean sticks in your nostrils and on your skin. Gravel rolls underfoot. There are homes with ivy hedges like forts and homes like wacky sculptures or with windows made up of other tiny windows. Occasionally you'll see a fading home fighting against being demolished for something in Technicolor.

The boys go barefoot, their wet feet leaving sloppy prints across the concrete.

As we walk, a red double-decker tour bus pulls up alongside us and stops in front of one of the houses. The voice inside it bellows, "This is where Tom Hanks lives."

"No, he doesn't!" we say.

Several ruddy-faced tourists stick their cameras out the windows. The dude who actually lives here is an accountant to the stars, according to Courtney. Maybe even to Tom Hanks. So perhaps the tour bus driver isn't that far off after all. Heather flashes them as they pull away.

Trevor drapes his arm around my shoulder. Everyone thinks he looks a little like Jason Priestley, but I think that's being generous. Trevor's my prom date, but I'm not into him like that. Sometimes it's nice just to be near another person, to feel their warmth and the blood coursing through their veins, and to feel the both of you alive.

"Oh shiiiit, love connection." Kimberly makes kissing faces in our direction. Michael looks back at us and rolls his eyes.

"Our kids would be so hot," Trevor says. "Mixed kids are the hottest."

Then he pulls away from me and retches into Tom Hanks's accountant's petunias.

There's a hole in the construction fence where you can just raise the green tarp and enter. I pause in front of it. "Guys, maybe we shouldn't go in there."

"Are you afraid?" Kimberly says.

Yes. Breaking and entering isn't exactly something someone who looks like me should do all willy-nilly. Or at all. But I don't want to call attention to myself. Not like that.

"No," I say. "It's just that..."

"You don't have to come, Ash. Nobody's making you do anything," Kimberly says. She says it all sweet and shit, but we all know it's a challenge.

"Dude, I promise you it's worth it." Michael winks.

Inside, the addition to the house is a skeleton, all bones and no meat, not yet. The dust sticks to our bodies as we walk through wood and nails and concrete slabs, but also beer bottles and cigarette butts. A tractor presides over all these building blocks like a promise. The pool remains untouched, an oasis, as though the owners decided that it-and only it-was perfect, which it is.

A few dead flies float on the water's surface. Trevor bends over to scoop them up with his hand.

Courtney, Heather, Kimberly, and I hold hands and jump. There's the rush of water, the cold, the velocity of our bodies. We sink, and then back up we pop.

"Marco...," Courtney yells.

"Polo..." Trevor belly flops in. Just like that, it's on.

We continue our call-and-response across the length of the pool. Courtney finds Heather first, and then Heather finds Kimberly. Kimberly finds Trevor, and Trevor finds Michael, until the only person left to be discovered is me. I've gotten good at being invisible. I swim under the water to the grotto. There, my friends are echoes. Dampened, they sound far away.

Inside, the walls are made of fake rock that's slightly slimy to the touch. There's a plastic opening where a light source should be, but the bulb's broken. Obscured from view, everything in the grotto feels like a secret.

"Marco!" Michael yells. He reaches his hands out and runs his fingertips across my shoulders, my face, my hair.

I don't say anything back. He splashes the water around us in mini waves.

You should know right now that I'm mostly a good person. I think.

I don't talk back to my parents, much. I would help an elderly person across the street, if there were any around. I get mostly As, with a few Bs in the subjects I don't care about. I even listen when Heather drones on about how plastic bags and aerosol hair spray make the planet hotter. All this is to say that I'm a good daughter. A good student. A good friend. A good sister. I don't have a choice.

"When you go out there in the world, you're not just you, Ashley," my grandma Opal said one summer while she braided my hair into four long strands that she embellished with yellow ribbons, "you're all of us, your family, Black folks. You have to be better than those white kids around you. It's not fair, but that's the way it is."

"I'm good, Grandma," I said.

And I still am. Mostly.

"I found you...," Michael whispers into the dark.

You should also know that I wasn't entirely honest about Michael. Yes, he's a douche. But he's also really funny in a New Yorky way, smart and a little overconfident, but also somehow self-deprecating and insecure, and he can be really sweet and a great listener, and he's got these beautiful curls like the ribbon on your favorite present.

Beneath the surface, he wraps his legs around mine and I wrap my arms around his shoulders until we're intertwined and our heartbeats pound in tandem. He smells like sunscreen. Water pours in sheets around us like rain. The last time we were alone together it was raining, but instead of some fancy-ass pool, the two of us were in Michael's crappy car. His lips graze my collarbone, and even though he's Kimberly's, together we're electric.

"Polo!" I yell.

Kimberly and Courtney get into an argument over the rules of Marco Polo-Kimberly thinks you can get out of the pool to avoid being tagged, but Courtney insists that's cheating, since we didn't agree upon "fish out of water" rules beforehand. To broker peace, I suggest we stop swimming and start drinking.

We pass the bottle around like a communion cup. I roll the bitter of the beer around on my tongue. I don't like beer, but we're underage, so we can't be choosy.

"What the hell?"

A crew of burly men in neon reflective vests and white hard hats enters, their faces red and sun chapped.

We scramble out of the pool and run through wood and glass and nails and trash. Pain hits my left foot, deep and searing. A piece of glass, part of a shattered beer bottle, is the culprit. The blood trickles in dark red lines down my foot.

I'm not supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be in AP physics right now, reviewing momentum and impulse. Right now, Mr. Holmes would be going into and out of focus.

"I'm calling the cops!" another hard hat yells after us.

"?'Fuck tha police, fuck fuck fuck tha police.'?" Trevor laughs, then punctuates it with a belch.

Across town, the trial lets out for the day. The members of the jury step out into the open air and lift their faces to the sky, glad that after a long, dark day, there's a bit of sunshine left.

No, I don't care about any of it now. But I will.

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The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed - A New York Times bestseller A William C. Morris Award Finalist "Should be required reading in every classroom." -...

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Praise for DEAR JUSTYCE:

An NPR Best Book of the Year!
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year!

" An unforgettable tour de force of social-justice and activist literature." - Booklist, starred review

" A powerful, raw must-read told through the lens of a Black boy ensnared by our broken criminal justice system." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Stone tackles the American juvenile justice system and its unjust persecution of Black boys in this gritty, powerful sequel to Dear Martin." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

" This book expands the conversation about systemic racism to include young men of color who don't fit the demands of respectability politics.... A nuanced perspective on the juvenile justice system." -"[An] emotionally intense follow-up to the William C. Morris Debut Award finalist Dear Martin." - Shelf Awareness

"Teens can relate to the feelings of alienation, loneliness, and confusion that lead Quan to make many of the choices that he does, even as the book explores the various ways our current justice system disenfranchises young people of color." - The Horn Book

"[This] layered, painfully timely sequel about racism, police brutality, and incarceration will hit you hard." - Hello Giggles

Praise for DEAR MARTIN:

"Powerful, wrenching." -John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down

" Absolutely incredible, honest, gut-wrenching. A must read!" -Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give

"Raw and gripping." -Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author of Long Way Down

Oklahoma Sequoyah Young Adult Book Award NOMINEE 2022

Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year SELECTION 2021

Kansas State Reading Circle Award SELECTION 2020

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers SELECTION 2021

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults SELECTION 2021

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Dear Justyce by Nic Stone: 9781984829696 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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Skip to Main Content (Press Enter) Praise for DEAR JUSTYCE: An NPR Best Book of the Year! A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year! " An unforgettable tour de force of social-justice and activist literature." - Booklist, starred review " A powerful, raw must-read told through the lens of a Black boy ensnared by our broken criminal justice system."

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The #1 New York Times bestseller The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, an

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An instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!From the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winning author Kwame Alexander, comes the first book in a searing, breathtaking trilogy that tells the story of a boy, a village, and the epic odyssey of an Africa

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Twelve-year-old Marlee doesn't have many friends until she meets Liz, the new girl at school. Liz is bold and brave, and always knows the right thing to say, especially to Sally, the resident mean girl. Liz even helps Marlee overcome her greatest fear, speaking, which Marlee never does outside her family.

But then Liz is gone, replaced by the rumor that she was a Negro girl passing as white. But Marlee decides that doesn't matter. Liz is her best friend. And to stay friends, Marlee and Liz are willing to take on integration and the dangers their friendship could bring to both their families.

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Twelve-year-old Marlee doesn't have many friends until she meets Liz, the new girl at school. Liz is bold and brave, and always knows the right thing to say, especially to Sally, the resident mean girl. Liz even helps Marlee overcome her greatest fear, speaking, which Marlee never does outside her family.

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Buy books online and find book series such as March on PenguinRandomHouse.com

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An A-list movie star moves to Los Angeles—next door to a family of five eligible sisters—in this irresistible novel where The Kardashians meets Pride and Prejudice, from the NYT bestselling author of Birds of California Every family is complicated, and the Benedettos are no exception. A

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Winner, National Book Awards 2016 for Fiction

ISBN 9780385542364
Doubleday/Penguin Random House

Colson Whitehead

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood-where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned-Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor-engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of Gulliver's Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey-hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.

Judges Citation

The Underground Railroad confirms Colson Whitehead's reputation as one of our most daring and inventive writers. A suspenseful tale of escape and pursuit, it combines elements of fantasy and the counter-factual with an unflinching, painfully truthful depiction of American slavery. Whitehead revisits the grotesque barbarities of our nation's history in the interest of our common stake in freedom and dignity. He has given us an electrifying narrative of the past, profoundly resonant with the present.

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The Underground Railroad - National Book Foundation

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Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood-where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape.

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KIRKUS REVIEW

A lovingly realized Depression-era Seattle becomes the field of play for the latest round in the titular, age-old game.

In February 1920, Love and Death choose their newest pawns as infants: Love's is Henry, a white boy of privilege (though influenza and grief rob him of much of it); Death's is Flora, the soon-to-be-orphaned daughter of African-American jazz musicians. In spring of 1937, the game begins. Flora sings in-and actually owns part of-the family's nightclub, but her heart is in the skies, where she flies a borrowed biplane and dreams of owning her own. Henry, a talented bass player, is poised to graduate from the tony private school he attends on scholarship with his best friend, Ethan, whose family took him in upon his father's suicide. They meet when Henry and Ethan visit the airstrip where Flora works; the boys are in pursuit of a story for Ethan's newspaper-magnate father. Brockenbrough's precise, luscious prose cuts back and forth among the four protagonists, according each character equal depth, with Ethan playing a heartbreaking supporting role. The contrast between the youthful excitement of ardent Henry and pragmatic Flora and the ageless, apparent ennui of the immortals gains nuance as readers come to understand that Love and Death are not without their own complicated feelings.

Race, class, fate and choice-they join Love and Death to play their parts in Brockenbrough's haunting and masterfully orchestrated narrative. (Magical realism. 12 & up)

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THE GAME OF LOVE AND DEATH by Martha Brockenbrough | Kirkus Reviews

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A lovingly realized Depression-era Seattle becomes the field of play for the latest round in the titular, age-old game. In February 1920, Love and Death choose their newest pawns as infants: Love's is Henry, a white boy of privilege (though influenza and grief rob him of much of it); Death's is Flora, the soon-to-be-orphaned daughter of African-American jazz musicians.

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Publishers Lunch Buzz Books Selection

" The Davenports by Krystal Marquis is the perfect read for fans of escapist historical fiction. We're talking romantic period pieces, lush with hunky suitors, lavish balls and endless love triangles. This Bridgerton-style book documents the Davenport sisters' mistrials as they navigate the ever-complex world of love." -NBC's TODAY

"With dazzling prose and whip-smart pacing, Krystal Marquis's gorgeous debut spirits readers into a world of polished glamor, but also a world shadowed by painful reckonings. Through trial, defeat, defiance, and triumph, its characters offer heart and perspective. The Davenports is a fresh, utterly enchanting read, and a much-needed addition to the contemporary canon of Black literature." "This deftly written series opener examines the lives of Black elites following Reconstruction with a focus on the constraints of women. The strong characterization, developed through alternating third-person perspectives, and descriptive setting lure readers in. A dazzling debut." "This stunningly wrought historical fiction debut follows a group of Black teens navigating classism, familial expectations, gender norms, and racism in 1910 Chicago. . . . Marquis perceptively explores the history and momentous impact of Black achievements and wealth during an underreported period in U.S. history. Employing expert characterization and complex dynamics, the author presents a cast of take-charge women, undeterred by their struggles and pursuing their passions regardless of expectations.""Marquis weaves the characters' stories in such a way that leaves readers anticipating the next chapter each time [and] the author's skilled descriptions give readers a real connection to the characters. This is a well-written novel, sure to please fans of historical fiction, romance, and Chicago history. Young adults and adults alike will learn from and enjoy this. Recommended." "Each girl brings a compelling arc to this series opener, and debut author Marquis crafts the rich setting with intriguing historical details and explorations of lesser-known Black history in the grand tradition of romance novelist Beverly Jenkins. . . . The distinct and satisfying emotional journeys of the four protagonists are wonderful [and] the book ends on a cliffhanger for the Davenport siblings, giving fans of historical fiction, and particularly those looking for Black representation without trauma, something to look forward to." "I loved this book . . . It's all SO GOOD. And yes, it's a lot about romance, which is great, but it's also about so much more. [It's about] wealthy Black families in the early 1900s and seeing their stories, as they navigate spaces not necessarily welcoming to them, while building their own businesses, communities, and networks . . . The characters are all well-developed, leading rich, complicated lives . . . If this whole series existed right now, I'd tear through it to the exclusion of everything else in my life. An excellent debut about challenging expectations and finding your own path." -Teen Librarian Toolbox

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The Davenports by Krystal Marquis: 9780593463338 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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Publishers Lunch Buzz Books Selection " The Davenports by Krystal Marquis is the perfect read for fans of escapist historical fiction. We're talking romantic period pieces, lush with hunky suitors, lavish balls and endless love triangles. This Bridgerton-style book documents the Davenport sisters' mistrials as they navigate the ever-complex world of love."

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Brown Girl Dreaming tells the story of my childhood, in verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, I always felt halfway home in each place. In these poems, I share what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and my growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.
It also reflects the joy of finding my voice through writing stories, despite the fact that I struggled with reading as a child. My love of stories inspired and stayed with me, creating the first sparks of the writer I was to become.

Where it takes place:

Columbus, Ohio, Greenville, South Carolina and Brooklyn, New York.

Where I wrote it:

In all of those places but mostly in Brooklyn.

Why I wrote it:

I wanted to understand who my mom was before she was my mother and I wanted to understand exactly how I became a writer. So I started researching my life, asking relatives and talking to friends - and mostly, just letting myself remember.

Awards

National Book Award winner

NAACP Image Award winner (in the category of Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teens)

Coretta Scott King Author Award winner

Newbery Honor winner

Sibert Honor winner

Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist

New York Times Bestseller (for over 20 weeks)

ALA Notable

Bank Street College of Education's Claudia Lewis Award

New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book

Kids' Indie Next List (Autumn 2014)

Kirkus Best Book

Booklist Editors' Choice

Publishers Weekly Best Book

School Library Journal Best Book

Horn Book Fanfare

Bulletin Blue Ribbon

NPR's Great Reads List

TIME magazine Top 10 YA of 2014 List

CCBC Choice

NPR's Book Concierge's 2014 Great Reads List

NPR's The Diane Rehm Show's "Readers' Reviews" on-air book club pick

Notable Books for a Global Society (NBGS) 2015 winner

BookPage Best Children's Book

Amazon Best Book (in two categories: Children's Books and Nonfiction)

Buzzfeed Best YA Books of 2014

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

Bustle.com's Top 25 Young Adult Novels of 2014 list

Audio edition: ALSC Notable Children's Recording

Audio edition: E.B. White Read-Aloud Award Winner: Middle Grade

State Lists

Indiana's Young Hoosier Book Award

Washington D.C.'s Capitol Choices Master List

Georgia's Children's Book Award Finalist

Wisconsin's Just One More Page! Master List

Virginia's Jefferson Cup Overfloweth 2015 Master List

California's ACL 2014 Distinguished Books Master list

Maryland's Black-Eyed Susan Book Award 2015-2016 (nominee)

Kentucky Bluegrass Award 2016 (nominee)

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Middle Grade/Young Adult | Brown Girl Dreaming | Jacqueline Woodson

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Brown Girl Dreaming tells the story of my childhood, in verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, I always felt halfway home in each place. In these poems, I share what it was