Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List for Teens

23 Books Found

  • All Boys Aren't Blue

    In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood and adolescence growing up as a gay black man.
    Cover of All Boys Aren't Blue
  • Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

    A collection of short stories explores what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teenagers and emphasizing that one person's experiences, reality, and personal identity are different than someone else.
    Cover of Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America
  • Children of Blood and Bone

    Zélie, her brother Tzain, and princess Amari fight to restore magic to the land and activate a new generation of magi, but they are pursued by the crown prince, who believes the return of magic will mean the end of the monarchy.
    Cover of Children of Blood and Bone
  • The Crossover

    Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.
    Cover of The Crossover
  • Dear Martin

    Profiled by a racist police officer in spite of his excellent academic achievements and Ivy League acceptance, a disgruntled college youth navigates the prejudices of new classmates and his crush on a white girl by writing a journal to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the hopes that his iconic role model's teachings will be applicable half a century later.
    Cover of Dear Martin
  • The Hate U Give

    After witnessing her friend's death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter's life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.
    Cover of The Hate U Give
  • I Am Alfonso Jones

    Illustrated by Stacey Robinson & John Jennings | The ghost of fifteen-year-old Alfonso Jones travels in a New York subway car full of the living and the dead, watching his family and friends fight for justice after he is killed by an off-duty police officer while buying a suit in a Midtown department store.
    Cover of I Am Alfonso Jones
  • Just Mercy, Adapted for Young Adults

    Details the author's personal experience, challenges, and efforts as a lawyer and social advocate to find justice for America's most marginalized people.
    Cover of Just Mercy, Adapted for Young Adults
  • March: Book One

    Illustrated by Nate Powell | A first-hand account of the author's lifelong struggle for civil and human rights spans his youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the birth of the Nashville Student Movement.
    Cover of March: Book One
  • March: Book Three

    Illustrated by Nate Powell | By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis prepares to risk everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma.
    Cover of March: Book Three
  • March: Book Two

    Illustrated by Nate Powell | The award-winning, best-selling series returns, as John Lewis' story continues through Freedom Rides and the legendary 1963 March on Washington.
    Cover of March: Book Two
  • Pet

    In a near-future society that claims to have gotten rid of all monstrous people, a creature emerges from a painting seventeen-year-old Jam's mother created, a hunter from another world seeking a real-life monster.
    Cover of Pet
  • Piecing Me Together

    Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.
    Cover of Piecing Me Together
  • The Poet X

    When Xiomara Batista, who pours all her frustrations and passion into poetry, is invited to join the school slam poetry club, she struggles with her mother's expectations and her need to be heard.
    Cover of The Poet X
  • Riot

    In 1863, Claire, the daughter of an Irish mother and a black father, faces ugly truths and great danger when Irish immigrants, enraged by the Civil War and the draft, lash out against blacks and wealthy "swells" of New York City.
    Cover of Riot
  • Slay

    An honors student at Jefferson Academy, seventeen-year-old Keira enjoys developing and playing Slay, a secret, multiplayer online role-playing game celebrating black culture, until the two worlds collide.
    Cover of Slay
  • A Song Below Water

    In a society determined to keep her under lock and key, Tavia must hide her siren powers.
    Cover of A Song Below Water
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

    A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism--and antiracism--in America.
    Cover of Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
  • The Stars and the Blackness Between Them

    Told in two voices, sixteen-year-old Audre and Mabel, both young women of color from different backgrounds, fall in love and figure out how to care for each other as one of them faces a fatal illness.
    Cover of The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
  • This Book Is Anti-Racist

    Learn language and phrases to interrupt and disrupt racism. So, when you hear a microaggression or racial slur, you'll know how to act next time.
    Cover of This Book Is Anti-Racist
  • We Are Not Equal Yet: Understanding Our Racial Divide

    From the end of the Civil War to the tumultuous issues in America today, an acclaimed historian reframes the conversation about race, chronicling the powerful forces opposed to black progress in America.
    Cover of We Are Not Equal Yet: Understanding Our Racial Divide
  • Who Put This Song On?

    17-year-old Morgan is a black teen triumphantly figuring out her identity when her conservative town deems depression as a lack of faith, and blackness as something to be politely ignored.
    Cover of Who Put This Song On?
  • A Wreath for Emmett Till

    Illustrated by Philippe Lardy | Fifteen interlinked sonnets to pay tribute to Emmitt Till, a fourteen-year-old African American boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1949 for whistling at a white woman, and whose murderers were acquitted.
    Cover of A Wreath for Emmett Till