Georgie Dupree

• Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3
• Reading Level: Grade 2

The Georgie Dupree series is for new and emerging readers, featuring a vibrant Black elementary student, a loving Black family that reminds you of your own, and classmates of all backgrounds and abilities. The series teaches children how to solve their own problems in everyday situations. Georgie is a character that children want to root for because her stories are relatable and there are valuable lessons weaved in. Readers are introduced to Georgie when she moves to a new city and taps into a creative passion to make new friends. The books teach resilience, self-confidence, and the power of positivity.

Not Done Yet: Shirley Chisholm’s Fight for Change

• Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 4
• Reading Level: Grade 3

Shirley Chisholm was a natural-born fighter. She didn’t like to be bossed and she wanted things to be fair.

Brooklyn-born Shirley Chisholm was smart and ambitious. She poured her energy into whatever she did—from teaching young children to becoming Brooklyn’s first Black assemblywoman. Not afraid to blaze a trail, she became the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first woman to seriously run for US president. With a vision of liberty and justice for all, she worked for equal rights, for the environment, for children, and for health care. Even now, her legacy lives on and inspires others to continue her work . . . which is not done yet.

Stirring free verse by Tameka Fryer Brown and evocative illustrations by Nina Crews provide an inspirational look at changemaker Shirley Chisholm.

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial: A Stone of Hope

From the Series Core Content Social Studies — Let’s Celebrate America

• Interest Level: Grade 2 – Grade 5
• Reading Level: Grade 3

History recognizes the leadership and voice Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. brought to the civil rights movement in 1960s America. A 30-foot tall statue of Dr. King gazes into the future full of hope for all humanity. His words of peace are carved in the walls of the monument as a reminder to all Americans of the power of peaceful protest. Learn all about the first national memorial to an African American.

Wonderful Hair: The Beauty of Annie Malone

• Interest Level: Grade 2 – Grade 5
• Reading Level: Grade 3

Forgotten today, Annie Turnbo Malone was an influential Black business leader in the early 20th century.

She turned her personally developed hair care products into a successful industry, including schools that taught the Poro method in her Poro Colleges. One of her students was the much more famous Madame C.J. Walker. She not only encouraged Black women to feel good about their hair, she showed them how to be entrepreneurs.

Annie Turnbo Malone is an inspiring model and an important part of women’s history and Black history who deserves to be better known.

Wonderful Hair is a Eureka Silver Medal winner.

Meet Allyson Felix: Track-and-Field Superstar

From the Series Sports VIPs (Lerner™ Sports)

• Interest Level: Grade 2 – Grade 5
• Reading Level: Grade 3

US track-and-field superstar Allyson Felix competed in five Olympic Games. In 2021, Felix won her 11th Olympic track-and-field medal, more than any other athlete in US history. Explore her life on and off the track.

Jesse Owens: Track-and-Field Legend

From the Series Epic Sports Bios (Lerner™ Sports)

• Interest Level: Grade 2 – Grade 5
• Reading Level: Grade 3

Jesse Owens was one of the greatest athletes in track-and-field history. Follow his life from running on Alabama roads with his father to winning gold in the 1936 Olympic Games.

Willie Mays: MLB MVP

From the Series Epic Sports Bios (Lerner™ Sports)

• Interest Level: Grade 2 – Grade 5
• Reading Level: Grade 3

Willie Mays is a Major League Baseball legend. He started on a semipro team in high school, but it wasn’t long before the Say Hey Kid started playing pro ball. A two-time MVP and 1954 World Series champion, Mays has made history as one of baseball’s greatest batters and fielders. Explore the exciting career and life of this superstar player.

Who Else in History? (Alternator Books®)

• Interest Level: Grade 3 – Grade 6
• Reading Level: Grade 4

Celebrate the women, people of color, and other hidden figures in history and science who are often overlooked. Features help introduce readers to important figures and to hear from the heroes in their own words.

Africa Is Not a Country, 2nd Edition

• Interest Level: Grade 3 – Grade 6
• Reading Level: Grade 4

Enter into the daily lives of children in the many countries of modern Africa.

Countering stereotypes, Africa Is Not a Country celebrates the extraordinary diversity of this vibrant continent. This edition includes updates to the text, statistics, and illustrations to reflect Africa in the 2020s.

“A lovely book about Africa that gets the issue of its enormous diversity right.” —Barbara Brown, Director, Africa in our Schools and Community Program, African Studies Center, Boston University

“A book every school must have as we emerge into the global village. Gives good insights into Africa’s many cultures, with a balance of the contemporary and traditional that is the way of life now.” —Oscar Mokeme, Director, Museum of African Tribal Art, Portland, Maine

Justice Makes a Difference

The Story of Miss Freedom Fighter, Esquire

• Interest Level: Grade 3 – Grade 6
• Reading Level: Grade 4

“‘Words are powerful,’ Grandma told Justice. ‘They can be used in powerful ways to do good or to do harm. That’s why it’s important to always be careful with your words.’”

Justice has grown up witnessing the many ways her grandma serves the community. She wants to make a difference in the world, too, but how? Isn’t she too young? Through conversations with her grandma and their shared love of books, Justice learns about important women and men throughout history who changed the world: Ella Baker, Shirley Chisholm, Charles Hamilton Houston, Dr. Wangari Maathai, Paul Robeson, and Ida B. Wells. Justice learns how each leader was a champion for advancing justice and improving the world, and she dreams of becoming a change maker, too—”Miss Freedom Fighter, Esquire,” a superhero with a law degree and an afro!

The Fight for Black Rights (Alternator Books®)

• Interest Level: Grade 3 – Grade 6
• Reading Level: Grade 4

Examine the struggle for justice for Black Americans, from voter suppression and the controversy over Confederate monuments to the protests against police brutality and racially motivated violence. Gain historical and current context to understand why the fight for Black rights continues today.

Martin & Anne: The Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank

• Interest Level: Grade 3 – Grade 7
• Reading Level: Grade 4

Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. were born the same year a world apart. Both faced ugly prejudices and violence, which both answered with words of love and faith in humanity. This is the story of their parallel journeys to find hope in darkness and to follow their dreams.

Left Out of History (Read Woke™ Books)

• Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 8
• Reading Level: Grade 4

Have you ever considered what’s missing from history books? Explore the misunderstood and underexamined past in this engaging series. Compelling photographs and primary sources help bring previously buried history to light.

Read Woke™ Books are created in partnership with Cicely Lewis, the Read Woke librarian. Inspired by a belief that knowledge is power, Read Woke Books seek to amplify the voices of people of the global majority (people who are of African, Arab, Asian, and Latin American descent and identify as not white), provide information about groups that have been disenfranchised, share perspectives of people who have been underrepresented or oppressed, challenge social norms and disrupt the status quo, and encourage readers to take action in their community.

History in Pictures (Read Woke™ Books)

• Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 8
• Reading Level: Grade 4

Analyze historical events in US history with a focus on photos that help tell stories of people from underrepresented groups. Readers are asked to think critically about who took the photos, why they were taken, and what viewpoint is represented. Students will see how key events in history connect to the overarching social justice issues we face today. Special features in the books prompt reader reflection, and a Take Action sidebar provides ideas for how to become involved.

Read Woke™ Books are created in partnership with Cicely Lewis, the Read Woke librarian. Inspired by a belief that knowledge is power, Read Woke Books seek to amplify the voices of people of the global majority (people who are of African, Arab, Asian, and Latin American descent and identify as not white), provide information about groups that have been disenfranchised, share perspectives of people who have been underrepresented or oppressed, challenge social norms and disrupt the status quo, and encourage readers to take action in their community.

Simone Biles: Greatest of All Time

From the Series Gateway Biographies

• Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 8
• Reading Level: Grade 5

Simone Biles discovered gymnastics on a chance day-care trip to a gym when she was six years old. Ten years later, she became the first Black woman to win the all-around world championship title. A two-time Olympian, Biles has won more world championship medals than any gymnast before her and has four official skills named after her. But Biles’s fans celebrate her courage as much as her gravity-defying moves. She’s spoken out about her abuse by USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, having ADHD, and her struggles with mental health leading up to and during the 2021 Olympics. Learn more about Biles’s life and career, and discover how she became one of gymnastics’ most accomplished and celebrated athletes of all time.

Ketanji Brown Jackson: First Black Woman on the US Supreme Court

From the Series Gateway Biographies

• Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 8
• Reading Level: Grade 5

Ketanji Brown Jackson’s journey to the US Supreme Court included service as a law clerk, attorney, federal public defender, and district judge. In 2022 she became the first Black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. Learn more about her background, history of public service, nomination, and groundbreaking confirmation.

Indigo and Ida

• Interest Level: Grade 5 – Grade 7
• Reading Level: Grade 6

When eighth grader and aspiring journalist Indigo breaks an important story, exposing an unfair school policy, she’s suddenly popular for the first time.

The friends who’ve recently drifted away from her want to hang out again. Then Indigo notices that the school’s disciplinary policies seem to be enforced especially harshly with students of color, like her. She wants to keep investigating, but her friends insist she’s imagining things.

Meanwhile, Indigo stumbles upon a book by Black journalist and activist Ida B. Wells—with private letters written by Ida tucked inside. As she reads about Ida’s lifelong battle against racism, Indigo realizes she must choose between keeping quiet and fighting for justice.

Jarome Iginla: How the NHL’s First Black Captain Gives Back

From the Series Lorimer Recordbooks

• Interest Level: Grade 7 – Grade 12
• Reading Level: Grade 5

There’s much more to Jarome Iginla’s story than being the first black captain of an NHL team. He is also renowned for his social commitment and generosity off the ice.

“Iggy” grew up in a single-parent household in St. Albert, Alberta. It was thanks to his grandparents that he started to play hockey. His hard work paid off and, in 1996, at the age of 18, Iggy was drafted into the NHL for the Calgary Flames. He went on to become a multiple-award-winning hockey player and two-time Olympic champion. But he never forgot his struggles in his rise to hockey stardom. Today, he plays an important role for many young hockey-loving Canadians by promoting diversity in hockey.

Distributed in the U.S by Lerner Publishing Group

Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself

• Interest Level: Grade 5 – Grade 12
• Reading Level: Grade 6

Millions of Africans were enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade, but few recorded their personal experiences. Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is perhaps the most well known of the autobiographies that exist. Using this narrative as a primary source text, authors Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge share Equiano’s life story in “found verse,” supplemented with annotations to give readers historical context. This poetic approach provides interesting analysis and synthesis, helping readers to better understand the original text. Follow Equiano from his life in Africa as a child to his enslavement at a young age, his travels across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, his liberation, and his life as a free man.