- General Recommendations
- Staff-Created List
Black Liberation Reading List for Teens
Explore essential titles for teens selected by the Schomburg Center, as it marks 95 years of collecting and preserving Black History, arts, and culture. [Check out the Schomburg Center using the link below]
StaffLibrary Staff
Grand Rapids Public Library
User from Grand Rapids Public Library

24 items
- 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. [Available in other formats]
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. [Available…- 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. [Available in other…
- 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. [Available in other formats]
- 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…
- 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…
- Details the author's personal experience, challenges, and efforts as a lawyer and social advocate to find justice for America's most marginalized people.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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. [Available in other formats]
- 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. [Available in other formats]
- 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…
- 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. [Available in other formats]
- 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. [Available in…
- 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. [Available in other formats]
- In a society determined to keep her under lock and key, Tavia must hide her siren powers. [Available in other formats]
- A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism--and antiracism--in America. [Available in other formats]
- 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. [Available in other formats]
- 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. [Available in other formats]
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