African-American Bibliography

Prepared by Bonnie Kunzel, Youth Services Consultant
New Jersey State Library

The following titles were nominated for the Best Books for Young Adults list over the past nine years. Those with an asterisk made the list. 

Angelou, Maya. Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now . Random House, 1993. Non-Fiction. (Adult)

Meditations and essays about charity, the spirit, death and the power of the word.

*Ashe, Arthur. Days of Grace . Random House, 1993. Biography. (Adult)

From tennis champion to AIDS activist, an inspirational and remarkable memoir.

Ayres, Katherine. North by Night . Delacorte, 1998. Historical Fiction. (Gr. 5-9)

Lucy (16) has been helping on the Underground Railroad for years, but now she is faced with two suitors and whether or not to risk her own life on the trek north.

Barnes, Joyce Annette. Promise Me the Moon . Dial, 1997. Fiction. (Gr. 5-8)

Although Annie (13) is quite smart, she is confused by so many things: boyfriend, best friend, whether or not to apply to a tough high school, and a father who works too much.

Bell, William. Zack . Simon & Schuster, 1999. Fiction. (Gr. 6-10)

Zack, a senior, is the son of a Jewish father and a black mother who knows nothing about his black heritage until he travels to Mississippi to meet his grandfather.

Belton, Sandra. McKendree . Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2000. Fiction. (Gr. 6-9)

McKendree, a nursing home for African Americans in rural West Virginia in 1948, helps a group of African-American teen volunteers become friends and discover some truths about themselves.

Berry, James. Everywhere Faces Everywhere . Simon & Schuster, 1997. Poetry. (Gr. 6-10)

Diversity is explored in this brief, eclectic collection of poems.

Brown, Kevin. Malcolm X: His Life and Legacy . Millbrook, 1995. Biography. (Gr. 8+)

Biography of Malcolm X and his influences.

Burks, Brian. Wrango . Harcourt Brace & Co., 1999. Historical Fiction. (Gr. 4-8)

George McJunkin joins a cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail at the close of the Civil War and faces the hardship of being a black cowboy while earning the respect of his fellow trailsmen.

Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Talents . Seven Stories, 1998. Science Fiction. (Adult)

In this sequel to Parable of the Sower , letters, diaries and flashbacks are used to continue the story of Lauren's efforts to establish her "Earthseed" community and its belief system in the face of repression and active persecution.

* Butler , Octavia E. Parable of the Sower . Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993. Science Fiction. (Adult)

Lauren, an empath who can feel both the pleasure and the pain of those around her, leads a band of survivors north after their home in Los Angeles is destroyed.

Caines, Bruce. Our Common Ground: Portraits of Blacks Changing the Face of America . Crown, 1994. Biography. (Adult)

The lives of African-American men and women of all ages are celebrated in sixty-five photographic portraits and biographical narratives.

*Carbone, Elisa. Stealing Freedom . Knopf, 1998. Historical Fiction. (Gr. 6-10)

Ann Maria Weems endured the horrors of slavery until she stole her freedom by taking the Underground Railroad to Canada . Based on a true story.

Carroll, Rebecca. Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America . Crown, 1997. Non-Fiction. (Adult)

Fifteen young black girls talk about growing up and race in America .

*Chambers, Veronica. Mama's Girl . Riverhead Books, 1992. Non-Fiction. (Adult)

A powerful story of survival, perseverance, love, understanding, forgiving, and moving ahead in spite of her dysfunctional family.

Clair, Maxine. Rattlebone . Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994. Short Stories. (Adult)

Loosely interwoven short stories, narrated by a sensitive young girl, that bring to life the inhabitants of an African-American neighborhood in Kansas City in the 1950s.

*Clinton, Catherine. I, Too, Sing America : African American Poetry . Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Poetry. (Gr. 7+)

Historical perspective and shimmering artwork in this remarkable collection.

Corwin, Miles. And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner City Students . William Morrow, 2000. Non-Fiction. (Adult)

Twelve students in the Los Angeles ghetto try to overcome the difficulties that life has handed them, finish high school and enroll in college.

*Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 . Delacorte, 1995. Historical Fiction. (Gr. 6+)

To straighten older brother Byron out, who seems to be on the road to becoming a juvenile delinquent, Kenny's family drives to Birmingham to visit grandmother and are there for the bombing in the summer of 1963.

*Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy . Delacorte, 1999. Historical Fiction. (Gr. 4-7)

Bud, an orphan on a quest to find his father, enters the blues world of the 1930s.

*D'Aguiar, Fred. The Longest Memory . Pantheon Books, 1995. Historical Fiction. (Adult)

When a young slave attempts to flee the Virginia family who owns him, his father tries to save him but winds up betraying him.

Davis, Ossie. Just Like Martin . Simon & Schuster, 1992. Historical Fiction. (Gr. 5-8)

Ike finds it difficult to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Martin Luther King, Jr., when two of his friends are killed in a church bombing.

Davis, Thulani. 1959 . Grove Weidenfeld, 1992. Historical Fiction. (Adult)

Willie Tarrant (12) experiences early changes in herself and in her community as desegregation comes to her small Virginia town.

*Delany, Sarah and A. Elizabeth. Having Our Say . Kodansha, 1993. Biography. (Adult)

Two sisters who lived for over a century describe what life was like for the black middle class.

Dove, Rita. On the Bus with Rosa Parks . W. W. Norton, 1999. Poetry. (Adult)

An affirming collection of poems by a former Poet Laureate of the Unites States.

*Draper, Sharon. Forged by Fire . Atheneum, 1997. Fiction. (Gr. 7-10)

Gerald, who has managed to survive in spite of an abusive drug-addict mother, must now protect his half-sister from the advances of his step-father.

Draper, Sharon. Romiette and Julio . Atheneum, 1999. Fiction. (Gr. 6-10)

Romiette, an African-American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, meet in an Internet chat room, discover they go to the same high school, fall in love, and then are harassed by a gang because of their interracial dating.

*Draper, Sharon. Tears of a Tiger . Atheneum, 1994. Fiction. (Gr. 7-10)

Andy and his friends go out drinking and driving to celebrate their basketball victory. The car goes off the road and his best friend is killed, leaving Andy to struggle against grief and overpowering guilt.

Eady, Cornelius. Autobiography of a Jukebox . Carnegie Mellon, 1997. Poetry. (Adult)

Rhythmic and compassionate poems about contemporary Black American life.

Easter, Eric, ed. Songs of My People: African Americans: A Self-Portrait . Little Brown, 1992. Non-Fiction. (Adult)

All aspects of African-American life are recorded by fifty African-American photographers who traveled across the United States.

*Edelman, Marian Wright. The Measure of Our Success . Beacon Press, 1992. Non-Fiction. (Adult)

A powerful mix of moral conviction, angry anecdote and a touch of humor with a message that could turn lives around.

*Elders, Joycelyn & David Chanoff. Joycelyn Elders, M.D. Morrow, 1996. Biography. (Adult)

This Surgeon General of the United States was born to a family of poor black farmers in Arkansas, won a college scholarship and became a dedicated doctor and advocate for the poor.