Gail Borden librarians listed their suggestions on Black History now it's your turn; click on Edit Page to add your picks.

 

Fiction Nonfiction

 

Fiction

 

Bucking the Sarge

Christopher Paul Curtis, 2004

The Newbery Award-winning author of "Bud, Not Buddy" and "The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963" gives readers a whole new angle on life and a world full of unforgettable and hilarious characters.

 

 

Come Juneteenth

Ann Rinaldi, 2007

How could the state of Texas keep the news of the Emancipation Proclamation from reaching slaves? In this riveting historical drama, Rinaldi sheds light on the events that led to the creation of Juneteenth, a celebration of freedom that continues today.

 

Copper Sun

Sharon Draper, 2006

Slave traders invade Armari's African village and she is dragged to a ship bound for the Carolinas. Bought by a plantation owner, Amari befriends a white indentured servant named Polly and struggles to hold on to her memories, in this Coretta Scott King Award-winning novel.

 

Day of Tears

Julius Lester, 2005

Through flashbacks, foreshadowing, and shifting first-person points of view, readers will travel with Emma and others through time and space. They come to discover that every decision has its consequences, and final judgment is passed down not by man, but by his maker.

 

Fire from the Rock

Sharon Draper, 2007

Its 1957, and Sylvia Patterson is shocked when she is asked to be one of the first black students to attend Central High School in Little Rock. Before Sylvia makes her final decision, smoldering racial tension ignites into flame, in this novel available just in time for the events 50th anniversary.

 

47

Walter Mosley, 2005

47 is the first young adult novel to be written by bestselling author Walter Mosley. A master storyteller, Mosley deftly mixes speculative and historical fiction in this daring novel. Set in a plantation, 47 (a young slave boy) is growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal slave master. His life seems doomed, until he meets the mysterious Tall John who not only introduces him to an unimaginable magical science but teaches 47 the meaning of freedom.

 

How I Live Now

Meg Rosoff, 2004

""EVERY WAR HAS turning points and every person too."

Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she's never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.

As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it's a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy's uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.

 

Last Dance on Holladay Street

Elisa Lynn Carbone, 2005

The year is 1878, and 13-year-old Eva has lost all the family she's ever known. Eva feels like an orphan--but she's not. Sadie Lewis, the woman who gave her up at birth, is alive and well in Denver. And Eva sets out to find her, carrying only an address on a slip of paper.

But Denver holds more surprises than Eva can bear. When she reaches 518 Holladay Street, she discovers Sadie Lewis's shocking secret--a secret that lands Eva in a house of ill repute, forced to dance with strangers for her keep. But Eva knows in her bones that she's free--and that she's got to escape. In a novel that pulses with the sights, sounds, and wild dangers of the frontier West, Elisa Carbone explores the many faces that family, and freedom, can take.

 

My Mother the Cheerleader

Robert Sharenow, 2007

In the tumultuous New Orleans of 1960, thirteen-year-old Louise Collins finds her world turned upside down when a stranger from the North arrives at her mother's boarding-house. Louise's mother spends her mornings at the local elementary school with a group of women known as the Cheerleaders, who harass the school's first black student, six-year-old Ruby Bridges, as she enters the building. One day a Chevy Bel Air with a New York license plate pulls up, and out steps Morgan Miller, a man whose mysterious past is eclipsed by his intellect and open-manner--qualities that enchant mother and daughter alike. For the first time, Louise feels as if someone cares what she thinks, even if she doesn't know what she believes. But when the reason for Morgan's visit is called into question, everything Louise thinks she knows about her mother, her world, and herself will change.

 

The Pox Party taken From Accounts By [Octavius Nothing's] Own Hand And Other Sundry Sources

M.T. Anderson, 2006

Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age 16, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.

 

On Beale Street

Ronald Kidd, 2008

In Memphis, in the 1950's, when fifteen-year-old Johnny is introduced to the blues, he ventures to the infamous Beale Street and finds the friendship with an up-and-coming young musician Elvis Presley.

 

Nonfiction

 

Getting Away With Murder The True Story Of The Emmett Till Case

Chris Crowe, 2003

Presents a true account of the murder of fourteen-year-old, Emmett Till, in Mississippi, in 1955.

 

I Too Sing America Three Centuries Of African American Poetry

Catherine Clinton, 1998

From the first known African American poet, Lucy Terry, to recent poet laureate Rita Dove, I, TOO, SING AMERICA captures the enormous talent and passion of black writers. This powerful and diverse, this unique collection spans three centuries of poetry in America as poets bare their souls, speak their minds, trace their roots, and proclaim their dreams in the thirty-six poems compiled here. The voices of Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, W. E. B. Dubois, and Gwendolyn Brooks, among others, create an energetic blend of tone and tempo, ardor and awe. From lamentations to celebrations, these poems reveal the ironies of black America, juxtaposing themes of resistance and reconciliation, hope and despair. Each poem is further illuminated with notes, a brief biography of the poet, and stunning visual interpretations. Clinton and Alcorn have created a stirring tribute to these great poets, as well as a remarkable volume that will move any reader.

 

Red hot salsa : bilingual poems on being young and Latino in the United States

Lori Marie Carlson, 2005

In Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States, Latino poets tell us, in English and in Spanish, who they are, where they are, and what their hopes are for the future.

 

 

 

“Funding for this grant was awarded by the Illinois State Library (ISL), a division of the Office of the Secretary of State, using funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), under the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).”