June Jubilee: Featured Titles for Children

To date, this is the only biography of Opal Lee, frequently described as "the grandmother of Juneteenth." Beautifully illustrated with full-page color illustrations, the book has a Juneteenth Timeline, and a notable list of "Sources" about Juneteenth that cite newspaper and journal articles, as well as websites.

Grades pre-K - 3: A young family's participation in the 1963 March on Washington is described in 57 well-chosen words. The Illustrations and brief text portray the events of the 1963 march in Washington, D.C., where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an historic speech.

A narrative history of the Motown music label covering the historical context, personalities, and ongoing legacy of the "sound of young America."

 

(PreK – Grade 2)  On a trip to the park with her mother, a young girl hears a rhythm coming from the world around her and begins to move to the beat, finally beginning an impromptu dance in which other children join her.

Bridget "Biddy" Mason, an African American philanthropist, healer, and midwife who was born into slavery. When Biddy arrived in California, where slavery was technically illegal, she was kept captive by her owners and forced to work without pay. But when Biddy learned that she was going to be taken to a slave state, she launched a plan to win her freedom.

(Grades 3-6)  Before he became one of the greatest guitar players of all time, Jimi Hendrix was a boy who loved to paint and listen to records, and who asked himself an unusual question: could someone paint pictures with sound?

Gr. 3 and up. Shange's poem "Mood Indigo" pays tribute to several African American men who made important contributions to 20th century culture: Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, Ray Barretto, Dizzy Gillespie, "Sonny Til" Tilghman, Kwame Nkrumah, and Duke Ellington. Includes brief biographies of each.

Grades 4 - 8

Before Muhammad Ali was a prize winning boxer, he was Cassius Clay, a kid growing up in Louisiville, Kentucky struggling with some of the same issues that many kids struggle with: family, school, racism, learning disabilities and more. Told in alternating verse and prose chapters, learn about Cassius' childhood and rise to fame.

Grades 4 - 7

Multi-award winning author/illustrator Jerry Pinkney (1939-2021) shares an illuminating and inspirational look at his youth in Philadelphia in the 1940s and 1950s, filled with impressive sketchbook drawings that show the early signs of his amazing talent

Grades Pre-K - 2: This sweet tribute to Black Dads manages to be sentimental and slyly funny at the same time. Each page, in turn, reveals a different child/grown-up pair bonding over an activity (cooking, gardening, fixing a car). What each child has in common is their utter confidence that spending time with them is Daddy’s favorite thing to do.