Board Books: Baby-4 years
Woke Baby by Mahogany L. Brown, illustrated by Theodore Taylor III
Dream Big, Little One by Vashti Harrison
Joshua’s Night Whispers by Angela Johnson
Joshua By the Sea by Angela Johnson
A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
Hats of Faith by Medeia Cohan, illustrated by Sarah Walsh
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (and his other books about Peter)
Picture Books: 4-8 years
The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James
Saturday by Oge Mora
Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis
The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Something Happened in our Town: a Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton, illustrated by Don Tate
Lovely by Jess Hong
Where Are You From? By Yamile Saied Méndez, illustrated by Jaime Kim
IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, and Carolyn Choi, illustrated by Ashley Seil Smith
Mixed: A Colorful Story by Arree Chung
Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frane Lessacl
When We Were Alone by David A. Robertson, illustrated by Julie Flett
Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Rosa by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Bryan Collier
The Legendary Miss Lena Horne by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon
When I Was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard
My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera
Unstoppable: How Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Defeated Army by Art Coulson, illustrated by Nick Hardcastle
Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis by Jabari Asim, illustrated by E. B. Lewis
Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills by Renee Watson, illustrated by Christian Robinson
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Gwen Strauss, illustrated by Floyd Cooper
Grace for President by Kelly Dipucchio, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman
Princess Truly in I Am Truly by Kelly Greenawalt, illustrated by Amariah Rauscher (and other Princess Truly books)
Skin Like Mine by Latashia M. Perry
We’re Different, We’re the Same by Bobbi Kates, illustrated by Joe Mathieu
We Are Together by Britta Teckentrup
Remarkably You by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Patrice Barton
All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis
Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Frank Morrison
Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Christian Robinson
Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Julie Morstad
The Stone Thrower by Jael Ealey Richardson, illustrated by Matt James
Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged by Jody Nyasha Warner, illustrated by Richard Rudnicki
Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester, illustrated by Karen Barbour
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, illustrated by George Ford
I am Jackie Robinson by Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos
Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki, illustrated by Dom Lee
Daddy, There’s A Noise Outside by Kenneth Braswell, illustrated by Joe Dent and Julie Anderson
Ron’s Big Mission by Rose Blue and Corinne J. Naden, illustrated by Don Tate
Black All Around by Patricia Hubbell, illustrated by Don Tate
A Kids Book About Racism by Jelani Memory
Children 8-12 years
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices anthology edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson
Resist: 35 Profiles of Ordinary People Who Rose Up Against Tyranny and Injustice by Veronica Chambers, illustrated by Paul Ryding
Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham
Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History by Vashti Harrison
Little Dreamers: Visionary Women Around the World by Vashti Harrison
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford
Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, Olivia Gatwood, illustrated by Theodore Taylor III
Shannen and the Dream for a School by Janet Wilson
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson
I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer, illustrated by Gillian Newland
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson
Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert
Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
Teen/Young Adult: 12+ Years
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Say Her Name (Poems to Empower) by Zetta Elliott, illustrated by Loveis Wise
This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell, illustrated by Aurelia Durand
What Lane by Torrey Maldonado
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
This Is My America by Kim Johnson
Black Card by Chris L. Terry
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
This Side of Home by Renée Watson
Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett
Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults): A True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
Sources
todaysparent.com
smithsonianmag.com
oprahmag.com
nytimes.com
diversebooks.org
popsugar.com