Now that the kiddos have gone back to school, or back to Zoom, they might not like the idea of additional reading.
Still, with so much going on in the world, we know that books often make sense of what’s nonsensical and the reads we’ve selected below tackle tough topics such as race and anti-racism.
Other book selections for your little ones embolden children to show off their confidence or teach strategies on maintaining self-worth in a world desperate to strip it from them.
Scroll below to uncover children’s picture books, young adult novels aimed at teenagers and everything else in between.
01
I Am Every Good Thing
Award-winning
duo Derrick
Barnes and
Gordon C. James
remind Black boys
that they are
divinely created in
I Am Every Good
Thing (Nancy
Paulsen, $17.99).
02
For Beautiful Black Boys Who Believe in a Better World
Meet Jeremiah,
who’s dealing with
the haunting
effects of gun
violence, in For
Beautiful Black
Boys Who Believe
in a Better World
(Flyaway, $18), by
Michael W. Waters
and Keisha Morris.
03
The Black Kids
The Black Kids
(Simon & Schuster
Books for Young
Readers, $18.99), a privileged Black
teen’s world gets
rocked after the
1992 Rodney King
riots.
04
Punching the Air – September 1
Best-selling author Ibi Zoboi and one of The Exonerated Five, Yusef Salaam, have produced this illustrated young adult novel about a teen who’s wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Pulling from Dr. Salaam’s own experience, this novel speaks on the dangers of mass incarceration and institutional racism.
05
The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth
Have an
open discussion
after reading The
Talk: Conversations About Race,
Love & Truth
(Crown Books for
Young Readers,
$16.99), edited by
Wade Hudson
and Cheryl Willis
Hudson.
06
Dear Justyce
Nic Stone
introduces us to
an incarcerated
teen in the YA
sequel Dear
Justyce (Crown
Books for Young
Readers, $18.99)
and sheds light on
the workings of
the criminal
justice system.
