Is it too early to talk to your kids about race? No, and books can be a helpful way to start. According to research, children become conscious of race very early in life, and explicit conversations can be instrumental in confronting the attitudes and biases they may have already been exposed to from a young age.

Board and Picture Books – Ages 0-5

• Hey Black Child by Useni Eugene Perkins
• A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
• AntiRacist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi, Ashley Lukashevsky (coming June 16, 2020)
• Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, Vashti Harrison
• Cool Cuts by Mechal Renee Roe
• Crown by Derrick Barnes

Elementary Picture + Chapter Books – Ages 6-10

• The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
• Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry
• Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration by Samara Cole Doyon
• The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, Kadir Nelson (Illustrator)
• ARCADE AND THE TRIPLE T TOKEN – THE COIN SLOT CHRONICLES # 1 by Rashad Jennings
• Unstoppable: How Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Defeated Army by Art Coulson, illustrated by Nick Hardcastle
• Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
• Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
• Something Happened in Our Town by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
• We Are Grateful, Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frané Lessac
• When I Was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard

Middle Grade/Independent readers – Ages 8-12

• Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson
• New Kid by Jerry Craft
• Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge: George and Martha Washington’s Courageous Slave Who Dared to Run Away; Young Readers Edition by Kathleen Van Cleve and Erica Armstrong Dunbar
• Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History by Vashti Harrison & Kwesi Johnson
• Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
• A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
• Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes
• Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer – Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford
• Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
• Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
• We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices by Wade Hudson & Cheryl Willis Hudson
• Clean Getaway by Nic Stone
• Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Brown
• The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert
• Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez
• I Am Not A Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer, illustrated by Gillian Newland

Teen Readers – Age 13 and up

• Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
• Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro
• Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
• Dear Martin by Nic Stone
• All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
• Black Enough: Stories of Being Black in America, edited by Ibi Zoboi
• Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott
• Internment by Samira Ahmed
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds, Kadir Nelson (Illustrator)
• This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work by Tiffany Jewell, Aurelia Durand (Illustrator)
• March: The Graphic Novel Series by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell (Illustrator)
• Dream Country by Shannon Gibney
• All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson
• Changing the Equation: 50+ US Black Women in STEM by Tonya Bolden