The African-American Experience

Biography    Fiction

Picture Books

Grandmama's Pride by Becky Birtha
Six-year-old Sarah Marie experiences segregation for the first time while on a trip in 1956 to visit her grandmother in the South.

 

 

 

The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy
Using scraps cut from the family's old clothing, Tanya helps her grandmother and mother make a beautiful quilt that tells the story of her family's life.

 

Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest
Harry sits on the porch with Mr. George Baker, an African American who is one hundred years old but can still dance and play the drums, waiting for the school bus that will take them both to the class where they are learning to read.

 

 

Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
Although a classmate says that she cannot play Peter Pan in the school play because she is black, Grace discovers that she can do anything she sets her mind to do.

 

Under the Quilt of Night by Deborah Hopkinson
A young girl flees from the farm where she has been worked as a slave and uses the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom in the north.

 

 

Homemade Love by Bell Hooks
A girl who is Girlpie to her mama and Honey Bun Chocolate Dewdrop to her daddy savors the warmth and love of her family.

 

Black All Around! by Patricia Hubbell
An African American girl contemplates the many wonderful black things around her, from the inside of a pocket, where surprises hide, to the cozy night where there is no light.

 

Salt in His Shoes : Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream by Roslyn Jordan
Young Michael Jordan, who is smaller than the other players, learns that determination and hard work are more important than size when playing the game of basketball.

 

 

Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
A fictionalized account of how in 1849 a Virginia slave, Henry "Box" Brown, escapes to freedom by shipping himself in a wooden crate from Richmond to Philadelphia.

 

Happy Feet : the Savoy Ballroom Lindy Hoppers and Me by Richard Michelson
A young boy who loves to dance listens as his father retells the story of the night he was born, which coincided with the opening of the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem.

 

Big Jabe by Jerdine Nolen
Momma Mary tells stories about a special young man who does wondrous things, especially for the slaves on the Plenty Plantation.

 

 

Sienna's Scrapbook : our African American Heritage Trip by Toni Trent Parker
A young girl's parents take her and her brother on a summer trip to visit the sites of African American history.

Mim's Christmas Jam by Andrea Davis Pinkney
When Pap goes away to build the New York City subway in 1915, his family sends him Mother's special jam which works magic in returning him home to celebrate Christmas.

 

 

 

Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco
To thank Miss Eula for her wonderful Sunday chicken dinners, three children sell decorated eggs to buy her a beautiful, Easter hat.

 

 

Circle Unbroken : the Story of a Basket and its People by Margot Theis Raven
A grandmother tells the tale of Gullahs and their beautiful sweetgrass baskets that keep their African heritage alive.

 

 

Dinner at Aunt Connie's House by Faith Ringgold
Dinner at Aunt Connie's is even more special than usual when Melody meets not only her new adopted cousin but twelve inspiring African-American women, who step out of their portraits and join the family for dinner.

 

 

When Joe Louis Won the Title by Belinda Rochelle
Jo's grandfather helps her feel better about herself when he tells her the story about why she is named for the heavyweight boxing champion, Joe Louis.

 

Little Cliff and the Porch People by Clifton L. Taulbert
Little Cliff is delayed by all his neighbors when they want to contribute their own ingredients to Mama Pearl's candied sweet potatoes.

 

 

 

Alec's Primer by Mildred Pitts Walter
A young slave's journey to freedom begins when a plantation owner's granddaughter teaches him how to read. Based on the childhood of a freed slave who later became a landowner in Vermont.

 

Dear Mr. Rosenwald by Boston Carole Weatherford
Young Ovella’s community comes together to raise money and build a much-needed school in the 1920s, with help from the president of Sears, Roebuck, and Company and support from Professor James of the Normal School.

 

 

Catching the Wild Waiyuuzee by Rita Williams-Garcia
As she tries to escape her mother's efforts to "plait-a-plait" and "string-a-bead" her hair, a young girl imagines herself running away into a jungle.

 

 

Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
Runaway slaves journey north along the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada by following the directions in a song, "The Drinking Gourd."

 

 

Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson
The making of "Show ways," or quilts which once served as secret maps for freedom-seeking slaves, is a tradition passed from mother to daughter in the author's family.