Books for Young Readers to Celebrate Black History Month

This post is sponsored by Scout Press.



Black History Month falls in the month of love—candy hearts, roses, Cupid's arrow, and Valentine's Day—and it always felt unfair to be given the shortest month of the year to celebrate the accomplishments and history of black Americans.

But the month of February is also the perfect month to celebrate the vastness of black culture, for these 28 days center on love: the love of culture, the love of food, the love of music, the love of community, the love of family, the love of laughter and jokes, the love of magic—and that is the heart of what it means to be black.

These recent reading selections we picked for children and young adults represent the wonderful quilt of the black experience and are a taste of the amazing books to come from black authors this year: a boy who tries to save the girl he loves, even if it means messing with time; two cousins who investigate a haunted church and get more than they bargained for; a little girl who learns to use her voice—and lift her hands—to make a stand about what she loves.

We're excited to see contemporary picture books that celebrate all of the ordinariness and extraordinariness of being a black child; middle-grade mysteries that need solving by plucky protagonists; and young adult books that press readers to think about the world around them, to fall in love over and over again, and even to escape dragons.

While anticipating several new debuts on the horizon, we're also eagerly awaiting 2019 children's and young adult books from juggernaut authors such as Jacqueline Woodson, Rita Williams-Garcia, Jason Reynolds, Kadir Nelson, Nic Stone, Don Tate, Sharon G. Flake, Sharon Draper, Renée Watson, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Nicola Yoon, and Gwendolyn Hooks. Plus, debuts from Rena Barron, India Hill Brown, Brittney Morris, Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, Ronni Davis, and Ashley Franklin.

Be sure to check out their new releases, along with our recommendations below. We hope to continue to see stories like these that capture the spectacular texture of what it means to be black and that celebrate the joy of the black experience.<