It’s time to pull out the shades and the sunscreen (yes, the sunscreen) and get ready for all things summer! While planning days filled with travel and play and surfside fun, do not forget the most important summertime accessory of all: a good book.
As always, The Brown Bookshelf is here to help you stay abreast of all the wonderful children’s and young adult titles available to you, specifically those authored and illustrated by African-Americans. This year, we’ve composed three summer reading lists for easy reference: a young adult list, a chapter book/middle grade list, and the picture book/easy reader list included in this post. (See subsequent posts for the other two lists.)
The titles on these lists were compiled by all of us. They’re books we’ve either read and loved, or we plan on reading during the next couple of months–preferably poolside and accompanied by a piña colada. But I digress.
Anyway, here are a host of fantastic books to share with your kids. ENJOY!
NEWER TITLES (2010-2012)
Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band
Author: Kwame Alexander
Illustrator: Tim Bowers
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press (2011)
Genre: PB
Around Our Way on Neighbors’ Day
Author: Tameka Fryer Brown
Illustrator: Charlotte Riley-Webb
Publisher: Abrams (2010)
Genre: PB
Baby Flo: Florence Mills Lights Up the Stage
Author: Alan Schroeder
Illustrator: Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu
Publisher: Lee and Low (2012)
Genre: PB
Belle, The Last Mule at Gee’s Bend: A Civil Rights Story
Author: Calvin Alexander Ramsey, Betty Stroud
Illustrator: John Holifield
Publisher: Candlewick (2011)
Genre: PB
Black Jack: The Ballard of Jack Johnson
Author: Charles R. Smith Jr.
Illustrator: Shane W. Evans
Publisher: Roaring Book Press (2010)
Genre: PB
Chocolate Me!
Author: Taye Diggs
Illustrator: Shane Evans
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (2011)
Genre: PB
Ellen’s Broom
Author: Kelly Starling Lyons
Illustrator: Daniel Minter
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (2012)
Genre: PB
Game, Set, Match, Champion Arthur Ashe
Author: Crystal Hubbard
Illustrator: Kevin Belford
Publisher: Lee & Low Books (2010)
Genre: PB
The Great Migration: Journey to the North
Author: Eloise Greenfield
Illustrator: Jan Spivey Gilchrist
Publisher: HarperCollins/Amistad (2010)
Genre: PB
I See the Rhythm of Gospel
Illustrator: Michele Wood
Author: Toyomi Igus
Publisher: Zonderkidz (2010)
Genre: PB
It Jes’ Happened
Author: Don Tate
Illustrator: R. Gregory Christie
Publisher: Lee & Low (2012)
Genre: PB
Li’l Rabbit’s Kwanzaa
Author: Donna L. Washington
Illustrator: Shane W. Evans
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (2010)
Genre: PB
Lottie Paris Lives Here
Author: Angela Johnson
Illustrator: Scott M. Fischer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (2011)
Genre: PB
Love Twelve Miles Long
Author: Glenda Armand
Illustrator: Colin Bootman
Publisher: Lee & Low Books (2011)
Genre: PB
My Friend Maya Loves to Dance
Author: Cheryl Willis Hudson
Illustrator: Eric Velasquez
Publisher: Abrams (2010)
Genre: PB
My Teacher
Author/Illustrator: James Ransome
Publisher: Penguin/Dial (2012)
Genre: PB
Never Forgotten
Author: Patricia C. McKissack
Illustrator: Leo Dillon, Diane Dillon
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade (2011)
Genre: PB
One Love
Author: Cedella Marley
Illustrator: Vanessa Newton
Publisher: Chronical Books (2011)
Genre: PB
The Pet Wash (one of 8 in Stone Arch Readers “A Pet Club Story” Series)
Author: Gwendolyn Hooks
Illustrator: Mike Byrne
Publisher: Capstone Press (2011)
Genre: Early Reader
Summer Jackson: Grown Up
Author: Teresa E. Harris
Illustrator: AG Ford
Publisher: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books (2011)
Genre: PB
Walk Together Children, Black American Spirituals (Volume One)
Author/Illustrator: Ashley Bryan
Publisher: Alazar Press (2012)
Genre: PB
When Grandmama Sings
Author: Margaree King Mitchell
Illustrator: James Ransome
Publisher: HarperCollins/Amistad (2012)
Genre: PB
White Water
Author: Michael S. Bandy, Eric Stein
Illustrator: Shadra Strickland
Publisher: Candlewick (2011)
Genre: PB
Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass
Author: Lesa Cline-Ransome
Illustrator: James E. Ransome
Publisher: Paula Wiseman Books (2012)
Genre: PB
NOTABLE TITLES
Bright Eyes, Brown Skin
Author: Cheryl Willis Hudson and Bernette G. Ford
Illustrator: George Ford
Publisher: Just Us Books (1990)
Genre: PB
Bronzeville
Author: Gwendolyn Brooks
Illustrator: Faith Ringold
Publisher: HarperCollins (1984)
Genre: PB
DeShawn Days
Author: Tony Medina
Illustrator: R. Gregory Christie
Publisher: Lee & Low (2001)
Genre: PB
Freight Train
Author-Illustrator: Donald Crews
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (1978)
Genre: PB
I Heard of a Land
Author: Joyce Carole Thomas
Illustrator: Floyd Cooper
Publisher: HarperCollins (2000)
Genre: PB
JoJo’s Flying Side Kick
Author/Illustrator: Brian Pinkney
Publisher: Aladin (1998)
Genre: PB
Most Loved in All the World
Author: Tonya Cherie Hegamin
Illustrator: by Cozbi A. Cabrera
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company (2009)
Genre: PB
The Other Side
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Illustrator: E.B. Lewis
Publisher: Penguin/Putnam (2001)
Genre: PB
Racing Against the Odds: The Story of Wendell Scott, Stock-Car Racing’s African-American Champion
Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Eric Velasquez
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish (2009)
Genre: PB
Raising Dragons
Author: Jerdine Nolen
Illustrator: Elise Primavera
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Sandpiper (2002)
Genre: PB
Ray Charles
Author: Sharon Bell Mathis
Illustrator: George Ford
Publisher: Lee & Low Books (2001)
Genre: PB
Whose Toes Are Those
Author: Jabari Asim
Illustrator: LeUyen Pham
Publisher: Little Brown (2006)
Genre: Board Book
The Other Side is one of my favorite PBs, by one of my favorite illustrators.
YES, the sunscreen. Sing it, sister. Not enough people do that, and skin cancer is as real for brown folk as for others.
I cannot WAIT to get my hands on Raising Dragons.
Thanks for these lists! My grandchildren (ages 4 & 9) are moving into my house this summer and my most emphatic ground rule is: 8:00 storytime with Omi! I will rely on these lists.