Picture book
Firebird
Misty Copeland
A young dancer imagines what practice and encouragement might make possible.
Collection
Young Readers & Families
Find picture books, graphic stories, and chapter books to read aloud or explore independently.
The shelves
Books in this collection
Biography
Black Ballerinas
Misty Copeland
Illustrated profiles introduce dancers whose careers expanded possibilities for Black ballet artists.
Memoir
Taking Flight
Michaela DePrince, Elaine DePrince
DePrince recalls her path from Sierra Leone to ballet training and professional performance.
Picture book
Alvin Ailey
Andrea Davis Pinkney
A picture-book biography introduces Ailey’s childhood and the movement language he brought to the stage.
Graphic memoir
March: Book One
John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell
The first volume traces Lewis’s childhood and the organizing that led to the Nashville lunch-counter sit-ins.
Picture book
The Doctor with an Eye for Eyes
Julia Finley Mosca
A picture-book biography follows physician and inventor Patricia Bath and her work in eye care.
Picture book
Mae Among the Stars
Roda Ahmed
A young Mae Jemison imagines herself in space with encouragement from her family.
Biography
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History
Vashti Harrison
Brief illustrated profiles introduce Black women whose work changed science, arts, and public life.
Picture book
The Undefeated
Kwame Alexander
A poem and illustrations honor Black achievement, endurance, and lives that public memory can overlook.
Poetry
The Crossover
Kwame Alexander
A novel in verse follows brothers whose closeness is tested on and off the basketball court.
Graphic novel
New Kid
Jerry Craft
A young cartoonist navigates a new private school and the assumptions classmates and adults make about him.
Memoir
Brown Girl Dreaming
Jacqueline Woodson
Woodson remembers growing up between South Carolina and New York in verse attentive to family stories.
Picture book
The Day You Begin
Jacqueline Woodson
Children find ways to speak about their differences and begin making connections in a classroom.
Fiction
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
Christopher Paul Curtis
A Michigan family’s visit to Birmingham brings a child’s perspective to an era of racial violence.
Fiction
Bud, Not Buddy
Christopher Paul Curtis
A boy in Depression-era Michigan follows clues he hopes will lead him to his father and a jazz band.
Fiction
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred D. Taylor
Cassie Logan watches her Mississippi family defend the land and independence they have worked to hold.
History
Heart and Soul
Kadir Nelson
A family-story voice and paintings guide readers through major chapters in African American history.
History
We Are the Ship
Kadir Nelson
Paintings and narrative bring the travel, teamwork, and resourcefulness of Negro League baseball into view.
Picture book
Tar Beach
Faith Ringgold
A child flying above a Harlem rooftop turns the city into a map of wishes for her family.
Folklore
The People Could Fly
Virginia Hamilton
A collection of African American folktales includes animal stories, tales of magic, and stories of escape.
Picture book
Amazing Grace
Mary Hoffman
A child determined to play Peter Pan challenges the limits others place on her imagination.
Picture book
Sulwe
Lupita Nyong'o
A girl’s encounter with a story about night helps her see her own skin differently.
Picture book
Hair Love
Matthew A. Cherry
A father and daughter work through the everyday adventure of styling her hair.
Picture book
A is for Affrilachia
Frank X Walker
An illustrated alphabet introduces places, people, and traditions in Black Appalachia.
Picture book
My People
Langston Hughes
Hughes’s short poem becomes the basis of a photographic celebration of Black faces and lives.