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Celebrating Black Joy for Kids and Teens

These books center on portraying Black joy in characters and stories that emphasize everyday living, a wide range of feelings, and positivity through growth in identity and community.

Board Books

Cover of Bitty Brown Babe
Deborah
Lefalle
2019

Through poetic descriptive text and vibrant mixed-media illustrations, this celebrates the delight of bonding with a beautiful brown baby.

Cover of Brown Sugar Babies
Charles R.
Smith
2020

Illustrations and rhyming describe babies in terms of different sweet and tasty brown treats.

Cover of Hey You! An Empowering Cel
Adeola
Dapo
2022

This remarkable picture book is a lyrical, inspirational exploration of growing up Black, written by award-winning illustrator Dapo Adeola, and brought to life by some of the most exciting Black artists of today.

Cover of I Love My Beautiful Hair
Elissa
Wentt
2022

Take a trip to the hair salon in this adorable celebration of family tradition and natural hair!

Cover of Me and My Mama
Carole
Weatherford
2022

In rhyming text, a young child reflects on the many reasons they love their mom.

Cover of Peek-a-You!
Andrea
Pinkney
Brian Pinkney
2022

Rhyming text and bright illustrations capture the whimsical joy of a game of peek-a-boo with little ones.

Cover of Your Special Voice
Temi
Adamolekun
Keisha Okafor
2022

This empowering board book inspires young readers to use their own special voice to make a difference in the world.

 

Picture Books and Early Readers

Cover of Abdul’s Story
Jamilah
Thompkins-Bigelow
Tiffany Rose
2022

Abdul loves telling stories but thinks his messy handwriting and spelling mistakes will keep him from becoming an author, until Mr. Muhammad visits and encourages him to persist.

Cover of Beach Day!
Candice
Ransom
Erika Meza
2020

A family spends a fun day at the beach, collecting shells, building sandcastles, and flying kites.

Cover of Hold Them Close: A Love Le
Jamilah
Thompkins-Bigelow
Patrick Dougher
2022

This book encourages young children to hold close their joy, the words of their ancestors and elders, as well as their power to change the world. A perfect book for shared story time, this book will inspire young people to march forth with pride, glow, and happiness.

Cover of I Love Being Me!
Renee Mechal
Roe
2020

Illustrations and rhyming text reveal all of the things girls love about themselves, from their nose, toes, and skin to their abilities.

Cover of Keyana Loves Her Family
Natasha Anastasia
Tarpley
Charnelle Pinkney Barlow
2022

Keyana's latest big idea is to have a backyard movie soirée for all her relatives, but when her twin cousins' fighting knocks over the projector movie night seems heading for disaster--until Keyana comes up with an even better idea.

Cover of Kick Push
Frank
Morrison
2022

When Epic's family moves to a new neighborhood, he has a hard time making friends and fitting in with his skateboard; but the trick to making new friends is to be yourself!

Cover of My Fade is Fresh
Shauntay
Grant
Kitt Thomas
2022

With so many beautiful hairstyles to choose from like perms and locs, a little girl decides to get the freshest fade on the block.

Cover of Too-Small Tyson
Janay
Brown-Wood
Anastasia Williams
2022

As the smallest of five brothers, Tyson is used to being left out; but when the family's pet gerbil, Swish, escapes, Tyson's creative thinking and mathematical skills save the day.

 

School Age

Cover of Black Boy Joy
Kwame
Mbalia
2021

From seventeen acclaimed Black male and nonbinary authors comes a vibrant collection of stories, comics, and poems about the power of joy and the wonders of Black boyhood.

Cover of Etta Invincible
Reese
Eschmann
2022

A girl with hearing loss and a boy adjusting to life in a new country connect through their love of comics and get entangled in their own fantastical adventure.

Cover of High Score
Destiny
Howell
2022

When his best friend is tormented by Lucky, a seventh-grade bully, Darius James, a con artist with a heart of gold, comes up with a plan to save his friend-and maybe the whole school-from Lucky.

Cover of It’s the End of the Worl
Justin A.
Reynolds
2022

When the electricity goes out, twelve-year-old Eddie and his friends set out to investigate what is going on when they make the startling discovery that they are the only ones left in their neighborhood.

Cover of The Kaya Girl
Mamle
Wolo
2022

When Faiza, a Muslim migrant girl from northern Ghana, meets Abena, a wealthy doctor's daughter from the south, they form an unlikely and powerful friendship despite their different social statuses, opening up new worlds to them both.

Cover of King of the Ice (Miles Lew
Kelly Starling
Lyons
Wayne Spencer
2022

When his friend RJ bets that Miles will wipe out at the ice rink, he is determined to prove him wrong.

Cover of Swim Team
Johnnie
Christmas
2022

A contemporary middle grade graphic novel about Bree starting at her new middle school. She’s stuck with the only elective, Swim 101. Bree suddenly finds her swim-crazed community counting on her to turn the school's failing team around.

Cover of Unfadeable
Maurice
Broaddus
2022

A young graffiti artist learns to fight smart against the gentrification threatening her neighborhood.

Cover of Wednesday and Woof: Catast
Sherri
Winston
Gladys Jose
2022

Wednesday and her service dog, Woof, are the best detectives in the whole world—or at least their neighborhood. But can they find Mrs. Winters’s missing cat before her big trip?

 

Teens and YA

Cover of Confessions of an Alleged
Joya
Goffney
2022

This is about a preacher's daughter in small-town Texas and her journey toward loving herself and her body, filled with heart, humor, family drama, and a dynamic love triangle.

Cover of The Davenports
Krystal
Marquis
2023

The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now it's 1910, and the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love--even where they're not supposed to.

Cover of The Hope Raisers: How a Gr
Nihar
Suthar
2022

The Hope Raisers is a deeply emotional narrative that follows Daniel, Mutura, and Lucy as they fight to transform their slum through art and skating. It inspires and educates readers on African culture, female empowerment, and creating sustainable change in developing countries.

Cover of Inheritance: A Visual Poem
Elizabeth
Acevedo
Andrea Pippins
2022

In her most famous spoken-word poem, Elizabeth Acevedo embraces all the complexities of Black hair and Afro-Latinidad--the history, pain, pride, and powerful love of that inheritance.

Cover of Kings of B’More
Eric R.
Thomas
2022

Propelled by his best friend's impending move out of state and inspired by Ferris Bueller's Day Off, sixteen-year-old Harrison plans a farewell through Baltimore that includes a road trip, their first Pride, and a rooftop dance party.

Cover of Lark & Kasim Start a Revol
Kacen
Callender
2022

Seventeen-year-old neurodivergent and nonbinary Lark pretends that they are the creator of a viral thread that their ex-best friend, Kasim, accidentally posted onto their Twitter account, declaring his unrequited love, but living a lie takes its toll on Lark, forcing them to deal with their own messy emotions.

Cover of Whiteout
Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas,
Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
2022

A snowstorm like this hits Atlanta only once every hundred years. As the city grinds to a halt, a group of teens band together to help a friend pull off the most epic apology of her life.

Cover of Zyla & Kai
Kristina
Forest
2022

The story of how a cynic and a hopeless romantic become friends, fall in love, and break up unfolds from their different perspectives.