Each Saturday throughout the month of February, the BWG Library will be honouring Black History Month by sharing a list of books that were written by Black authors, explore historical figures and events, feature diverse characters and more. This week, the BWG Library is sharing their top Young Adult titles in celebration of Black History Month. Including both fiction and nonfiction, graphic novels and eBooks, this list has a little bit of everything. Whether you are a teen or an adult, these titles are timely and engaging, so give them a try! You can reserve the books on this list through the BWG Library Catalogue at www.bradford.library.on.ca and pick up your selections through the BWG Library’s Curbside Pick Up Service.
If you need help finding the perfect book for Black History Month, check BradfordToday.ca every Saturday for new selections for the whole family. If you need more suggestions, let the BWG Library know! Send a message through Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwglibrary or email [email protected]. Or, if you have a book you think should be added to the collection, send your suggestion today.
The Black Friend : on being a better white person, by Frederick Joseph
Writing from the perspective of a friend, Frederick Joseph offers candid reflections on his own experiences with racism and conversations with prominent artists and activists about theirs--creating an essential read for white people who are committed anti-racists and those newly come to the cause of racial justice. Features conversations with Jemele Hill, Angie Thomas, Naima Cochrane and others.
The Black Kids, by Christina Hammonds Reed
Los Angeles, 1992
Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer.
Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a Black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.
As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model Black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble. Even as her best friends help spread a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson.
With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them?
Strange Fruit. Volume II :.More uncelebrated narratives from Black history, by Joel Christian Gill
Collecting stories from early African American history, this comic shows how people succeeded in the face of slavery and racism, from Henry "Box" Brown's escape from slavery to Theophilus Thompson, former slave who became the first Black chess master. Comics artist Joel Christian Gill offers these stories of self-liberation to honor our the past and as a gift of hope for future generations.
Into The Streets : a young person's visual history of protest in the United States, by Marke Bieschke
Bieschke guides readers through the art and history of significant protests, sit-ins, and collective acts of resistance throughout US history. Though little recorded history exists for events before the mid-1600s, anti-colonial resistance by Native Americans took the form of violent raids and warfare. Bieschke uses photos, artwork, and other visual elements to highlight the history of social action from American Indian resistance to colonists through Black Lives Matter and Women's Marches. He introduces the personalities and issues that drove these protests, as well as their varied aims and accomplishments
We Are Not Yet Equal: understanding our racial divide, by Carol Anderson
When America achieves milestones of progress toward full and equal black participation in democracy, the systemic response is a consistent racist backlash that rolls back those wins. We are not yet equal examines five of these moments: The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with Jim Crow laws; the promise of new opportunities in the North during the Great Migration was limited when Blacks were physically blocked from moving away from the South; the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 led to laws that disenfranchised millions of African American voters and a War on Drugs that disproportionally targeted Blacks; and the election of President Obama led to an outburst of violence including the death of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as well as the election of Donald Trump.
The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
On The Come Up, by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least win her first battle. As the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bri’s got massive shoes to fill.
But it’s hard to get your come up when you’re labeled a hoodlum at school, and your fridge at home is empty after your mom loses her job. So Bri pours her anger and frustration into her first song, which goes viral . . . for all the wrong reasons.
Bri soon finds herself at the center of a controversy, portrayed by the media as more menace than MC. But with an eviction notice staring her family down, Bri doesn’t just want to make it—she has to. Even if it means becoming the very thing the public has made her out to be.
Insightful, unflinching, and full of heart, On the Come Up is an ode to hip hop from one of the most influential literary voices of a generation. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; and about how, especially for young black people, freedom of speech isn’t always free.
