Black Lives Matter: A Teen Book List
These are complicated times but social unrest often brings change and growth. It is also an opportunity for us to talk to one another, learn, and think about how our beliefs and actions impact those around us.
This booklist was created as a starting place to explore racial inequities, open discussions with each other, and help us look critically at our Nation's past and present.
Are you part of a school group, sports team, church group or other youth group? Invite others to read and discuss one of these books with you. Looking for a group? The Central Library has a social justice book group, Rising Voices, for teens. We read and discuss books about a broad range of issues. Any teen in grades 9-12 is invited to join us.
Fiction
A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope by Patrice Caldwell, editor
A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
All the Days Past, All the Days to Come by Mildred D. Taylor
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Black Enough : Stories of Being Young & Black in America by Ibi Aanu Zoboi, editor
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Dream Country by Shannon Gibney
The Hate U Give Angie Thomas
Genesis Begins Again by Alicia Williams
How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
This Side of Home by Renée Watson
Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles
X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon
Graphic Novels
As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman
I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina
March: Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
New Kid by Jerry Craft
The Silence of Our Friends by Mark Long
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by Greg Neri
Nonfiction
A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose
Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Just Mercy: Adapted for Young Adults: A True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson
Malcolm X : By Any Means Necessary by Walter Dean Myers
Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don't You Grow Weary by Elizatbeth Partridge
No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell
We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices by Wade Hudson
Looking for more books? Take a look at our Black Lives Matter Pinterest board.