17 Kids’ Books to Read During Black History Month (and All Year Long)

“Everybody benefits from learning about other people’s experiences,” says Kazz Alexander Pinkard, executive director ofHit the Books, an after-school nonprofit in Harlem. With that said, the experience of having to explain how to pronounce your name correctly because of language or ethnicity is something that children from all over the world can relate to.Your Name Is a Songis about a young girl who struggles with correcting people when they don’t say her name the right way, and how she overcomes her fears and learns to appreciate the music in her name. “I wish I learned how to stand up and ask people to say my name correctly when I was younger,” Pinkard says.

Frison says that it’s important to read many different kinds of books, including books that explicitly discuss race likeOur Skin. Starting the conversation early helps prepare children for lived experiences and helps them develop empathy. Pinkard says that kids start to understand similarities and differences at around 2 years old, so it makes sense to address different skin tones at that developmental stage. But he also adds that children and parents of color haven’t had the luxury of choosing whether or not to talk about race, the way white families have, because their lived experiences make it unavoidable. This board book is the first in a series of books meant to help parents start important conversations with clear, concrete language and beautiful imagery that young children can grasp.

“I love the bookBrown Boy Joybecause the characters look like me and the kids that I teach,” says Pinkard, noting that it’s one of the few books that has multiple brown boy characters in it, and they don’t all look the same in the illustrations.

Smith recommendsMae Among the Stars, which she calls a “dreamy nonfiction book” that celebrates the pioneer Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to go to space. In it, little Mae imagines floating among billions of stars. Her dream of becoming an astronaut is fueled by her curiosity and determination, but also her parents’ encouragement.

Sailaja Joshi, founder ofMango & Marigold Press, recommendsHair Lovebecause, as she says, “Positive depictions of Black fathers often get stripped away in children’s stories.” Instead,Hair Loveshows a Black father and his daughter bonding over an extra-special hairstyle he learns to create for a special day. Pinkard likes the book because his students feel seen when they pick it up. “One of our students literally jumped up when she saw this book and said, ‘I love this book, it’s about me and my dad,’” he says.

Along with her work as a politician and activist, Stacey Abrams is an accomplished author — including eight works of fiction under the pseudonymSelena Montgomery— butStacey’s Extraordinary Wordsis her first children’s book. It’s also a New YorkTimesbest seller. Joshi, whose kids are currently learning to spell complicated words in first and third grade, says she loves the book almost as much as she loves Abrams herself: “It talks about her own story with words and her love of the spelling bee, and some of the prejudice that she faced,” she says. It’s easy to see parallels to Abrams’s political career in the story, especially when little Stacey faces off with the school bully at the spelling bee and learns a valuable lesson about perseverance.

If you’re looking for something that will appeal to kids who like comic books and superheroes,Stuntboy, in the Meantime, which comes recommended by Frison, is a fabulous choice. It follows the secret superhero adventures of Stuntboy, whose real name is Portico Reeves. Portico lives in the biggest house in the whole city and spends his time navigating bullies, hearing his parents fight, and managing his own anxiety. Meanwhile, as Stuntboy, his job is “keeping other superheroes safe, so they can save the world!”

Ada Twist is an especially curious second-grader who uses the scientific method to investigate the origins of a strange and unpleasant smell. This book and others in authorAndrea Beaty’s STEM-themed Questioneersserieshave been recommended to us many times over, and there is even a Netflix animated series and several toy lines inspired by Ada Twist, making the character a celebrity in many kids’ eyes. “In the diversity of the classroom and the way each one of the stories gets told, the world they are creating is phenomenal,” says Joshi.

“This book reminds me of the lessons I had when I was younger about the importance of the many contributions of Black Americans in American history. It was often phrased as ‘you wouldn’t have this if it wasn’t for a Black person,’” says Pinkard, who recommendsHave You Thanked an Inventor Today?for both its message and its illustrations.

There are now more and more books available to young people that challenge past historical conversations and whose stories were being told. According to Joshi, who is working to makeRead Across America Day(March 2) a more diverse and inclusive national event, these books are a great way to teach kids to ask questions about who is telling a given story, whose voices we are hearing, and whose voices we mightnotbe hearing. Both she and Pinkard recommendThe 1619 Project: Born on the Wateras an example of one of these books. Written by Nikole Hannah-Jones, who started the1619 Project— a 2019 initiative from theNew York Times Magazinemarking the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery —Born on the Waterspeaks directly to the idea that race is essential to the narrative and history of America. “I like this book because it thinks about ways that we can approach our history, our family lineage in a contributive manner to the fabric of America. It doesn’t only speak about the hardship and the struggle of the Black experience, it uplifts the Black experience,” says Pinkard. At a moment in this country where schools are banning books and some people are trying to prevent teachers from talking about race in school, Pinkard says parents and educators have two choices. “You can either lean into the learning or you can try to ban it from the library. We are leaning into the learning because it is both our experience as a community of Black and brown people predominantly, but it’s also the real experience of Americans in America. So we’re not gonna hide away from that story,” he says.

Stephens says that even though Black History Month started in the U.S., it’s still important to learn about the contributions of Black people globally because we know that due to colonialism, racism and white supremacy are global problems. Speaking of the diaspora, Pinkard recommends the National Book Award finalist and graphic novelWhen Stars Are Scatteredby Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed because it represents a very current story about the life of immigrants. The book is about a pair of brothers in a refugee camp in Kenya, and it explores questions like: What is it like to be in a refugee camp? What is it like to move to a different place for safety and for your family? “Honoring the experiences of folks that have come to the United States is part of the Black narrative and the Black experience,” Pinkard says.

Stephens, Frison, Kruger, Smith, and Pinkard all mentioned the power of poetry as a way of connecting children with history. This book, which comes specifically recommended by Stephens, is both a National Book Award and Newbery Honor winner. The memoir tells the story of author Jacqueline Woodson’s childhood in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her young perspective on the Civil Rights Movement.

Pinkard also recommends that all kids (and parents) readThe Hill We Climbbyyouth poet laureate Amanda Gorman. To him, the book, a special gift edition of herinaugural speechthat includes a foreword by Oprah Winfrey, is about “the United States and the pursuit of happiness and a more perfect union. I think that’s what history and Black history are about too.”