Black History Month Special
Here you will find some old favourites and some new books to fall in love with. We hope you enjoy them...
Adult fiction
Nightcrawling
Leila Mottley
We'll laugh because we can, until the sun disintegrates and nighttime threatens to set us free just to capture us again, back into the things we can't escape.
Kiara does not know what it is to live as a normal seventeen-year-old. With her mother in a halfway house, she fends for herself - and for nine-year-old Trevor, whose own mother disappears for days at a time. But as the pressures of rent to pay and mouths to feed increase, Kiara finds herself walking the streets after dark, determined to survive in a world that refuses to protect her.
Nightcrawling is an unforgettable novel about young people navigating the darkest corners of an adult world, told with a humanity that is at once agonising and utterly mesmerising.
You Made a Fool of Death with your Beauty
Akwaeke Emezi
It's the opportunity of a lifetime:
Feyi is about to be given the chance to escape the City's blistering heat for a dream island holiday: poolside cocktails, beach sunsets, and elaborate meals. And as the sun goes down on her old life our heroine also might just be ready to open her heart to someone new.
The only problem is, she's falling for the one man she absolutely can't have.
Transcendent Kingdom
Yaa Gyasi
As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two - and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away.
Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother's life, she turns to science for answers. But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family's story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America.
Transcendent Kingdom is a searing story of love, loss and redemption, and the myriad ways we try to rebuild our lives from the rubble of our collective pasts.
Caul Baby
Morgan Jerkins
Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power. When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage.
What she doesn't know is that a baby will soon be delivered in her family - by her niece, Amara, an ambitious college student - and delivered to the Melancons to raise as one of their own. Hallow is special: she's born with a caul, and their matriarch, Maman, predicts the girl will restore the family's prosperity.
Engrossing, unique, and page-turning, Caul Baby illuminates the search for familial connection, the enduring power of tradition, and the dark corners of the human heart.
The Street
Ann Petry
New York City, 1940s. In a crumbling tenement in Harlem, Lutie Johnson is determined to build a new life for herself and her eight-year-old boy, Bub - a life that she can be proud of. Having left her unreliable husband, Lutie believes that with hard work and resolve, she can begin again; she has faith in the American dream. But in her struggle to earn money and raise her son amid the violence, poverty and racial dissonance of her surroundings, Lutie is soon trapped: she is a woman alone, 'too good-looking to be decent', with predators at every turn.
Decent People
De’Shawn Charles Winslow
In the still-segregated town of West Mills, North Carolina, in 1976, Marian, Marva, and Lazarus Harmon-three enigmatic siblings-are found shot to death in their home. The people of West Mills- on both sides of the canal that serves as the town's color line-are in a frenzy of finger-pointing, gossip, and wonder. The crime is the first reported murder in the area in decades, but the white authorities don't seem to have any interest in solving the case.
Fortunately, one person is determined to do more than talk. Miss Josephine Wright has just moved back to West Mills from New York City to retire and marry a childhood sweetheart, Olympus "Lymp" Seymore. When she discovers that the murder victims are Lymp's half-siblings, and that Lymp is one of West Mills's leading suspects, she sets out to prove his innocence. But as Jo investigates those who might know the most about the Harmons' deaths, she starts to discover more secrets than she'd ever imagined, and a host of cover-ups-ranging from medical misuse to illicit affairs-that could upend the reputations of many.
Beloved
Toni Morrison
‘An American masterpiece’ AS Byatt
It is the mid-1800s and as slavery looks to be coming to an end, Sethe is haunted by the violent trauma it wrought on her former enslaved life at Sweet Home, Kentucky. Her dead baby daughter, whose tombstone bears the single word, Beloved, returns as a spectre to punish her mother, but also to elicit her love. Told with heart-stopping clarity, melding horror and beauty, Beloved is Toni Morrison’s enduring masterpiece.
The Sweetness of Water
Nathan Harris
Landry and Prentiss are two brothers born into slavery, finally freed as the American Civil War draws to its bitter close. Cast into the world without a penny to their names, their only hope is to find work in a society that still views them with nothing but intolerance.
Farmer George Walker and his wife Isabelle are reeling from a loss that has shaken them to their core. After a chance encounter, they agree to employ the brothers on their land, and slowly the tentative bonds of trust begin to blossom between the strangers.
But this sanctuary survives on a knife's edge, and it isn't long before a tragedy causes the inhabitants of the nearby town to turn their suspicion onto these new friendships, with devastating consequences.
Bernard and the Cloth Monkey
Judith Bryan
A shattering portrayal of family, guilt and unshakable bonds as a family's deepest secrets explosively unravel
When Anita finally returns home to London after a long absence, everything has changed.
Her father is dead, her mother is away, and she and her sister Beth are alone together for the first time in years.
They share a house. They share a family. They share a past.
Tentatively, they reach out to one another for connection, but the house echoes with words unspoken.
The Emperor’s Babe
Bernadine Evaristo
Londinium, AD 211. Zuleika is a modern girl living in an ancient world. She's a back-alley firecracker, a scruffy Nubian babe with tangled hair and bare feet - and she's just been married off a fat old Roman. Life as a teenage bride is no joke but Zeeks is a born survivor. She knows this city like the back of her hand: its slave girls and drag queens, its shining villas and rotting slums. She knows how to get by. Until one day she catches the eye of the most powerful man on earth, the Roman Emperor, and her trouble really starts . . .
Silver-tongued and merry-eyed, this is a story in song and verse, a joyful mash-up of today and yesterday. Kaleidoscoping distant past and vivid present, The Emperor's Babe asks what it means to be a woman and to survive in this thrilling, brutal, breathless world.
The Vanishing Half
Brit Bennett
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' story lines intersect?
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.
The Death of Vivek Oji
Akwaeke Emezi
They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died.
One afternoon, a mother opens her front door to find the length of her son's body stretched out on the veranda, swaddled in Akwete material, his head on her welcome mat. The Death of Vivek Oji transports us to the day of Vivek's birth, the day his grandmother Ahunna died. It is the story of an over protective mother and a distant father, and the heart-wrenching tale of one family's struggle to understand their child, just as Vivek learns to recognize himself.
Teeming with unforgettable characters whose lives have been shaped by Vivek's gentle and enigmatic spirit, it shares with us a Nigerian childhood that challenges expectations. This novel, and its celebration of the innocence and optimism of youth, will touch all those who embrace it.
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin
'I had to deal with what hurt me most. I had to deal with my father.'
Drawing on James Baldwin's own boyhood in a religious community in 1930s Harlem, his first novel tells the story of young Johnny Grimes. Johnny is destined to become a preacher like his father, Gabriel, at the Temple of the Fire Baptized, where the church swells with song and it is as if 'the Holy Ghost were riding on the air'. But he feels only scalding hatred for Gabriel, whose fear and fanaticism lead him to abuse his family. Johnny vows that, for him, things will be different. This blazing tale is full of passion and guilt, of secret sinners and prayers singing on the wind.
White Teeth
Zadie Smith
On New Years Day 1975, the day of his almost-suicide, life said yes to Archie Jones. Not OK or 'You-might-as-well-carry-on-since-you've-started'. A resounding affirmative.
Promptly seizing his second life by the horns, Archie meets and marries Clara Bowden, a Caribbean girl twenty-eight years his junior.
Thus begins a tale of friendship, of love and war, of three culture and three families over three generations . . .
White Teeth is a comic epic of multicultural Britain by one of the most exciting young writers of 2000. It tells the story of immigrants in England over a period of 40 years.
Adult non-fiction
Sista Sister
Candice Brathwaite
I Am Not Your Baby Mother was a landmark publication in 2020. A thought-provoking, urgent and inspirational guide to life as a Black British mum, it was an important call-to-arms allowing mothers to take control and scrap the parenting rulebook to do it their own way. It was a Sunday Times top five bestseller.
Sista Sister goes further. It is a compilation of essays about all the things Candice wishes someone had talked to her about when she was a young Black girl growing up in London. From family and money to Black hair and fashion, as well as relationships between people of different races and colourism, this will be a fascinating read that will have another profound impact on conversations about Black Lives Matter.
Just Sayin’
Malorie Blackman
to shape British culture, and inspired generations of younger readers and writers. The Noughts and Crosses series, started in 2000, sparked a new and necessary conversation about race and identity in the UK, and are already undisputed classics of twenty-first-century children's literature.
She is also a writer whose own life has been shaped by books, from her childhood in south London, the daughter of parents who moved to Britain from Barbados as part of the Windrush Generation, and who experienced a childhood that was both wonderful and marred by the everyday racism and bigotry of the era. She was told she could not apply to study her first love, literature, at university, in spite of her academic potential, but found a way to books and to a life in writing against a number of obstacles.
This book is an account of that journey, from a childhood surrounded by words, to the 83 rejection letters she received in response to sending out her first project, to the children's laureateship. It explores the books who have made her who she is, and the background to some the most beloved and powerful children's stories of today. It is an illuminating, inspiring and empowering account of the power of words to change lives, and the extraordinary life story of one of the world's greatest writers.
Born a Crime
Trevor Noah
Noah was born a crime, son of a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents' indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the first years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, take him away.
A collection of eighteen personal stories, Born a Crime tells the story of a mischievous young boy growing into a restless young man as he struggles to find his place in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Born a Crime is equally the story of that young man's fearless, rebellious and fervently religious mother - a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence and abuse that ultimately threatens her own life.
Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Noah illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and an unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a personal portrait of an unlikely childhood in a dangerous time, as moving and unforgettable as the very best memoirs and as funny as Noah's own hilarious stand-up. Born a Crime is a must read.
That Bird Has My Wings
Jarvis Jay Masters
The moving memoir of a Death-Row inmate who discovers Buddhism and becomes an inspirational role model for fellow inmates, guards, and a growing public.
In 1990, while serving a sentence in San Quentin for armed robbery, Jarvis Masters was implicated as an accessory in the murder of a prison guard. A 23-year-old African-American, Jarvis was sentenced to death in the gas chamber. While in the maximum security section of Death Row, using the only instrument available to him-a ball-point pen filler-Jarvis has written an astounding memoir that is a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit and the talent of a fine writer.
Offering us scenes from his life that are at times poignant, revelatory, frightening, soul-stirring, painful, funny and uplifting, That Bird Has My Wings tells the story of the author’s childhood with parents addicted to heroin, an abusive foster family, a life of crime and imprisonment, and the eventual embracing of Buddhism. Master’s story drew the attention of luminaries in the world of American Buddhism, including Pema Chodron, who wrote a story about him for O Magazine and offers a Foreword to the book.
Twenty-two years after his conviction, Masters is still on Death Row-but things have changed. The California Supreme Court has ordered an investigation into whether newly discovered evidence points to his innocence, which could result in the overturn of Jarvis’s conviction and death sentence. A growing movement of people believe Masters is innocent, and are actively working within the legal system to free him.
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again' Maya Angelou
In this first volume of her seven books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman she has known discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration.
Caste
Isabel Wilkerson
Beyond race or class, our lives are defined by a powerful, unspoken system of divisions. In Caste, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson provides a profound, eye-opening portrait of this hidden phenomenon. This is the story of how our world was shaped by caste, and how its rigid, arbitrary hierarchies still divide us today.
Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways we can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.
Finding Home: A Windrush Story
Alford Dalrymple Gardner | Howard P Gardner
Alford Dalrymple Gardner is one of the few living passengers to have travelled on the Empire Windrush. He is one of 10 whose portrait was commissioned by King Charles, and appears in the BBC's Windrush: Portraits of a Generation special. Now published for the first time, this is his stirring life story.
On 24 May 1948, the Empire Windrush sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, to harbour at Tilbury Docks. It carried 1,027 passengers and some stowaways, and more than two thirds of them were West Indies nationals.
On 22 June 1948 they disembarked onto the docks, Alford Dalrymple Gardner was among them. Alford's story traverses both the uplifting highs and intolerant lows that West Indian migrants of his generation encountered upon travelling to Britain to forge out a life. From joining the British military during World War II to returning to Jamaica once it was won-only to come back to the UK when the government decided it needed him again-Alford witnessed milestone events of the 20th century that shaped the country he still lives in today.
In the context of a supposedly 'post-Imperial' Britain where the lives of West Indian migrants hang precariously on the whims of the Home Office, Alford's heartening testimony is a celebration of those who endured hardships so that generations to come could call this place home.
Rising to the Surface
Lenny Henry
Rising to the Surface traces Lenny Henry's career through the 80s and 90s. The 16-year-old who won a talent competition, now has to navigate his way through the seas of professional comedy, learning his craft through sheer graft and hard work.
We follow Lenny through a period of great creativity - prize-winning tv programmes, summer seasons across Britain, the starring role in a Hollywood film, and stand-up gigs in New York. But with each rise there is a fall, the most traumatic being the death of his mother. But by the end of the book he has been able to rise through a sea of troubles and breaks out to the surface to accept the Golden Rose of Montreux for his work in television.
Black Girl, No Magic
Kimberly McIntosh
Kimberly McIntosh has lived a full life, with a loving family, messy friendships, mind-expanding travel and all-night parties. She’s also spent that life wondering why such opportunities aren’t always available to people who look like her.
Stemming from years of social policy research and campaign work, this essay collection brings together all that Kimberly has learned; whether that’s dismantling the myth of social mobility for those who toe the line, to understanding why her teenage Facebook posts are quite so cringe. In it, she uses her own experiences to reveal how systematic injustice impacts us all, from the pressure of nuclear families, to enduring toxic friendships, to how painful it can be to watch Love Island.
Perfect for fans of Slay In Your Lane, Trick Mirror, and Bad Feminist, this dazzling debut collection brilliantly melds the personal and political to not only tell the story of a life, but what that life might teach us.
Dispatches from the Diaspora
Gary Younge
For the last three decades Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events and with the most significant personalities to impact the black diaspora: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Obama's victory, entering New Orleans days after hurricane Katrina or interviewing Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy. He has witnessed how much change is possible and the power of systems to thwart those aspirations.
Dispatches from the Diaspora is an unrivalled body of work from a unique perspective that takes you to the frontlines and compels you to engage and to 'imagine a world in which you might thrive, for which there is no evidence. And then fight for it.'
Children and young adults
We’re Going to Find the Monster!
Malorie Blackman
Suitable for ages 0 – 5
Over the shimmering ocean, up the huge, high mountain, through the deep, dark forest . . . WE'RE GOING TO FIND THE MONSTER!
Join two intrepid adventurers as their imaginations transform their house into a wild wonderland - and their big brother becomes a mighty monster. A joy to read-aloud with its cumulative refrain, and full of funny, relatable characters, this is a contemporary celebration of creativity, fantasy and family.
Look Up!
Nathan Bryon | Dapo Adeola
Suitable for ages 0 – 5
Meet hilarious, science-mad chatterbox, Rocket - she's going to be the greatest astronaut, star-catcher, space-traveller that has ever lived!
But... can she convince her big brother to stop looking down at his phone and start LOOKING UP at the stars?
Bursting with energy and passion about science and space, this heart-warming, inspirational picture book will have readers turning off their screens and switching on to the outside world.
Hair Love
Matthew Cherry
Suitable for ages 0 – 5
It's up to Daddy to give his daughter an extra-special hair style in this story of self-confidence and the love between fathers and daughters.
Zuri knows her hair is beautiful, but it has a mind of its own!
It kinks, coils, and curls every which way. Mum always does Zuri's hair just the way she likes it - so when Daddy steps in to style it for an extra special occasion, he has a lot to learn.
But he LOVES his Zuri, and he'll do anything to make her - and her hair - happy.
Tender and empowering, Hair Love is an ode to loving your natural hair - and a celebration of daddies and daughters everywhere.
Young, Gifted and Black
Jamia Wilson
Suitable for ages 5 – 7
Meet 52 icons of color from the past and present in this celebration of inspirational achievement—a collection of stories about changemakers to encourage, inspire and empower the next generation of changemakers. Jamia Wilson has carefully curated this range of black icons and the book is stylishly brought together by Andrea Pippins’ colourful and celebratory illustrations.
Written in the spirit of Nina Simone’s song “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” this vibrant book is a perfect introduction to both historic and present-day icons and heroes. Meet figureheads, leaders and pioneers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks, as well as cultural trailblazers and athletes like Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey and Serena Williams.
All children deserve to see themselves represented positively in the books they read. Highlighting the talent and contributions of black leaders and changemakers from around the world, readers of all backgrounds will be empowered to discover what they too can achieve.
Strong, courageous, talented and diverse, these extraordinary men and women's achievements will inspire a new generation to chase their dream… whatever it may be.
A Kids Book About Racism
Jelani Memory
Suitable for ages 5 – 9
A clear explanation of what racism is and how to recognise it when you see it.
As tough as it is to imagine, this book really does explore racism. But it does so in a way that's accessible to kids. Inside, you'll find a clear description of what racism is, how it makes people feel when they experience it, and how to spot it when it happens.
Covering themes of racism, sadness, bravery, and hate. This book is designed to help get the conversation going. Racism is one conversation that's never too early to start, and this book was written to be an introduction on the topic for kids aged 5-9.
Brilliant Black British History
Atinuke
Suitable for ages 7 - 9
An eye-opening story of Britain, focusing on a part of our past that has mostly been left out of the history books: the brilliant Black history of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Did you know that the first Britons were Black? Or that some of the Roman soldiers who invaded and ruled Britain were Black, too? Join this fascinating journey through the ages to meet those first Britons, as well as the Black Tudors, Georgians and Victorians who existed in every walk of life here. The incredible journey through time is brought to life through Atinuke's fascinating storytelling and illustrated scenes, detailed maps, and timelines created by illustrator Kingsley Nebechi.
From science and sport to literature and law, celebrate the brilliant Black people who have helped build Britain. Learn about key and complex historical topics such as the world wars, slavery, the industrial revolution, Windrush and the Black Lives Matter movement. This fascinating book will change everything you thought you knew about our green-grey British isles.
Everyday Action, Everyday Change
Natalie Evans | Naomi Evans
Suitable for ages 9 – 11
Making changes that help make the world a fairer place can feel overwhelming.
Where do you even start? Well . . .
Small actions really can make a big difference!
In this inspiring guide, changemakers, sisters and founders of Everyday Racism, Natalie and Naomi Evans, give readers empowering advice for dealing with the issues we see, hear about and face every day, from racism and sexism to homophobia and ableism, providing you with achievable everyday actions to create change!
Tips for practising positive everyday mindsets and self-care before things get stressful make this a go-to book for feeling informed, positive and motivated too.
Join us on our journey to creating sustainable change, one small step at a time.
Cane Warriors
Alex Wheatle
Suitable for ages 11 – 14
Nobody free till everybody free.
Moa is fourteen. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugar cane plantation for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an uprising, led by the charismatic Tacky.
Moa is to be a cane warrior, and fight for the freedom of all the enslaved people in the nearby plantations. But before they can escape, Moa and his friend Keverton must face their first great task: to kill their overseer, Misser Donaldson. Time is ticking, and the day of the uprising approaches . . .
Irresistible, gripping and unforgettable, Cane Warriors follows the true story of Tacky’s War in Jamaica, 1760.
Eight Pieces of Silva
Patrice Lawrence
Suitable for ages 11 – 14
Becks is into girls but didn't come out because she was never in. She lives with her mum, stepdad and eighteen-year-old Silva, her stepdad's daughter. Becks and Silva are opposites, but bond over their mutual obsession with K-pop.
When Becks' mum and stepdad go on honeymoon to Japan, Becks and Silva are left alone. Except, Silva disappears. Becks ventures into the forbidden territory of Silva's room and finds the first of eight clues that help her discover her sister's secret life.
Meanwhile, Silva is on a journey. A journey to make someone love her. He says he doesn't, but he's just joking. All she has to do is persuade him otherwise ...
Noughts & Crosses
Malorie Blackman
Suitable for ages 11 – 14
'Stop it! You're all behaving like animals! Worse than animals - like blankers!'
Sephy is a Cross: she lives a life of privilege and power. But she's lonely, and burns with injustice at the world she sees around her.
Callum is a nought: he's considered to be less than nothing - a blanker, there to serve Crosses - but he dreams of a better life.
They've been friends since they were children, and they both know that's as far as it can ever go. Noughts and Crosses are fated to be bitter enemies - love is out of the question.
Then - in spite of a world that is fiercely against them - these star-crossed lovers choose each other.
But this is love story that will lead both of them into terrible danger . . . and which will have shocking repercussions for generations to come.
Voted as one of the UK's best-loved books, Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses is a seminal piece of YA fiction; a true modern classic.
Ace of Spades
Faridah Abike-Iyimide
Suitable for ages 12+
Hello, Niveus High. It's me. Who am I? That's not important. All you need to know is...I'm here to divide and conquer. - Aces
Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is revealing the darkest secrets of two students.
Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can't escape the spotlight when his private photos go public.
Head girl Chiamaka isn't afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power.
Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they're planning much more than a high-school game...
The Upper World
Femi Fadugba
Suitable for ages 11 – 14
ONE GLIMPSE OF A TERRIFYING FUTURE.
ONE CHANCE TO CHANGE EVERYTHING.
After suffering a knock to the head, 15-year-old Esso experiences a chilling vision: that night he will witness the violent deaths of everyone he knows. He writes off the out-of-body experience as a strange dream - until a series of frightening coincidences prove that the vision is just hours away from coming true.
There is only one person who can help him rewrite the future.
The trouble is, she hasn't been born yet . . .
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred D. Taylor
Suitable for ages 12+
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the classic story of a girl growing up in the deep South. Set in Mississippi at the height of the American Depression, this is the story of a family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride and independence against the forces of a cruelly racist society.
'We have no choice of what colour we're born or who our parents are or whether we're rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we're here.'
The Mississippi of the 1930s was a hard place for a black child to grow up in, but still Cassie didn't understand why farming his own land meant so much to her father. During that year, though, when the night riders were carrying hatred and destruction among her people, she learned about the great differences that divided them, and when it was worth fighting for a principle even if it brought terrible hardships.
The Door Of No Return
Kwame Alexander
Suitable for ages 12+
Dreams are today’s answers for tomorrow’s questions.
Eleven-year-old Kofi Offin has dreams of water, of its urgent whisper that beckons with promises and secrets. He has heard the call on the banks of Upper Kwanta, West Africa, where he lives. He loves these things above all else: his family, the fireside tales of his father’s father, a girl named Ama, and, of course, swimming.
But when the unthinkable – a sudden death – occurs during a festival between rival villages, Kofi ends up in a fight for his life. What happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves. Yet Kofi’s dreams may be the key to his freedom…
Previous recommendations
Adult fiction
To Fill A Yellow House
Sussie Anie
When Kwasi and his family move abruptly from one side of London to the other, he sets out to explore his new home. Escaping the watchful eyes of Ma and Da and his irrepressible Aunties, he discovers the local high street and a hidden river. Back at the yellow house, he spends hours drawing, distracting himself from thoughts of the new school that awaits.
As the years pass, the high street remains a source of fascination for Kwasi. But behind the ever-changing shopfronts, it's a different story. Business is slow and times are getting tougher. Widower Rupert has been trying to hold on to the dreams he and his wife poured into their eclectic charity shop, The Chest of Small Wonders, but now he is close to giving up.
One October night, Kwasi finds himself in trouble and takes refuge in the Chest, and an unexpected friendship begins. As he and Rupert unite to save the shop, they each find a sense of belonging. But old patterns are hard to change, and as tensions around them escalate, difficult choices lie ahead.
Lyrical, witty, moving and timely, To Fill a Yellow House is a story of community, friendship and the power of creativity and connection. It is as vibrant and surprising as the city it is set in and marks the arrival of a bright and bold new talent.
What A Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You
Sharma Taylor
At eighteen years old, Dinah gave away her baby son to the rich couple she worked for before they left Jamaica. They never returned. She never forgot him.
Eighteen years later, a young man comes from the US to Kingston. From the moment she sees him, Dinah never doubts - this is her son.
What happens next will make everyone question what they know and where they belong.
A powerful story of belonging, identity and inheritance, What a Mother's Love Don't Teach You brings together a blazing chorus of voices to evoke Jamaica's ghetto, dance halls, criminal underworld and corrupt politics, at the beating heart of which is a mother's unshakeable love for her son.
The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
‘Astonishing… A great work infused with love and honesty’ Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple
Immerse yourself in a celebration of Black womanhood and an epic tale of the stories that span generations.
Ailey Pearl Garfield grows up between the City in the north and summers spent in her mother’s small hometown of Chicasetta, Georgia. From an early age, she finds herself in a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hurt in her past, as well as the whispers of women―her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries―that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.
To come to terms with her identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors―Indigenous, Black, and white―in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story―and the song―of America itself.
Soul Sisters
Lesley Naa Norle Lokko
Soul Sisters by Lesley Lokko is a rich, intergenerational tale of love, race, power and secrets which centres on the lifelong friendship between two women: Scottish Jen McFadden and South African-born Kemisa Mashabane, known to her friends as Kemi.
Since childhood, Jen and Kemi have lived like sisters in the McFadden family home in Edinburgh, brought together by a shared family history which stretches back generations. Kemi was educated in Britain alongside Jen and the girls could not be closer; nor could they be more different in the paths they take in life. But the ties that bind them are strong and complicated, and a dark family secret exists in their joint history.
Solam Rhoyi is from South Africa’s black political elite. Handsome, charismatic, charming, and a successful young banker, he meets both Kemi and Jen on a trip to London and sweeps them off their feet. Partly influenced by her interest in Solam, and partly on a journey of self-discovery, Kemi, now 31, decides to return to the country of her birth for the first time. Jen, seeking an escape from her father’s overbearing presence, decides to go with her.
In Johannesburg, it becomes clear that Solam is looking for the perfect wife to facilitate his soaring political ambitions. But who will he choose? All the while, the real story behind the two families’ connection threatens to reveal itself – with devastating consequences . . .
The Attic Child
Lola Jaye
Two children trapped in the same attic, almost a century apart, bound by a secret.
1907: Twelve-year-old Celestine spends most of his time locked in an attic room of a large house by the sea. Taken from his homeland and treated as an unpaid servant, he dreams of his family in Africa even if, as the years pass, he struggles to remember his mother’s face, and sometimes his real name...
Decades later, Lowra, a young orphan girl born into wealth and privilege, will find herself banished to the same attic. Lying under the floorboards of the room is an old porcelain doll, an unusual beaded claw necklace and, most curiously, a sentence etched on the wall behind an old cupboard, written in an unidentifiable language. Artefacts that will offer her a strange kind of comfort, and lead her to believe that she was not the first child to be imprisoned there . . .
Lola Jaye has created a hauntingly powerful, emotionally charged and unique dual-narrative novel about family secrets, love and loss, identity and belonging, seen through the lens of Black British History in The Attic Child.
Black Cake
Charmaine Wilkerson
'An extremely assured debut which pulls in threads and echoes from across the Caribbean diaspora to deliver a rich, complex and really satisfying novel' ALISON FINCH, BBC Radio 4
Eleanor Bennett won't let her own death get in the way of the truth. So when her estranged children - Byron and Benny - reunite for her funeral in California, they discover a puzzling inheritance.
First, a voice recording in which everything Byron and Benny ever knew about their family is upended. Their mother narrates a tumultuous story about a headstrong young woman who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder, a story which cuts right to the heart of the rift that's separated Byron and Benny.
Second, a traditional Caribbean black cake made from a family recipe with a long history that Eleanor hopes will heal the wounds of the past.
Can Byron and Benny fulfil their mother's final request to 'share the black cake when the time is right'? Will Eleanor's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?
Assembly
Natasha Brown
'Exquisite, daring, utterly captivating. A stunning new writer' Bernardine Evaristo
Come of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Step out into a world of Go Home vans. Go to Oxbridge, get an education, start a career. Do all the right things. Buy a flat. Buy art. Buy a sort of happiness. But above all, keep your head down. Keep quiet. And keep going.
The narrator of Assembly is a Black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend's family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can't escape the question: is it time to take it all apart?
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
'Things Fall Apart' tells the story of Okonkwo, an important man in the Igbo tribe in the days when white men were first on the scene. Okonkwo becomes exiled from his tribe, as a result of his pride and his fears, with tragic consequences. Originally published: London: Heinemann, 1958
Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Set in Nigeria during the 1960s, this novel contains three main characters who get swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. It is about Africa, about the end of colonialism, about class and race, and the ways in which love can complicate these things. Originally published: London: Fourth Estate, 2006
Adult non-fiction
We Go High
Nicole Ellis
Follow the life lessons of 30 remarkable women of colour - past and present - who have made their mark on society and culture.
"When you are struggling and you start thinking about giving up, I want you to remember something... and that is the power of hope." - Michelle Obama (White House speech, 2017)
From activists to scientists, artists to sporting icons, each woman's story is different - but all have in common a deep-seated resilience to fight against the prejudices and barriers to success that women of colour face on a daily basis. The book features political powerhouses such as Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams, as well as businesswomen like Arundhati Bhattacharya and Angelica Ross, and writers Michaela Coel and Amanda Gorman.
With 30 stunning, specially commissioned portraits, We Go High not only celebrates their achievements but uncovers the personal beliefs, attitudes, and determination that drive them.
The Black History Book
Learn about the most important milestones in Black history in The Black History Book.
Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Black History in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Black History Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in.
The Black History Book is a captivating introduction to the key milestones in Black History, culture, and society across the globe - from the ancient world to the present, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Explore the rich history of the peoples of Africa and the African diaspora, and the struggles and triumphs of Black communities around the world, all through engaging text and bold graphics.
Your Black History Questions, Simply Explained
Which were the most powerful African empires? Who were the pioneers of jazz? What sparked the Black Lives Matter movement? If you thought it was difficult to learn about the legacy of African-American history, The Black History Book presents crucial information in a clear layout. Learn about the earliest human migrations to modern Black communities, stories of the early kingdoms of Ancient Egypt and Nubia; the powerful medieval and early modern empires; and the struggle against colonization. This book also explores Black history beyond the African continent, like the Atlantic slave trade and slave resistance settlements; the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz Age; the Windrush migration; civil rights and Black feminist movements.
Everyone Versus Racism: A Letter To My Children
Patrick Hutchinson
'I just want equality, equality for all of us. At the moment, the scales are unfairly balanced and I just want things to be fair for my children, my grandchildren and future generations.' On 13th June 2020, Patrick Hutchinson, a black man, was photographed carrying a white injured man to safety during a confrontation in London between Black Lives Matter demonstrators and counter-protestors. The image went viral and quickly travelled around the world with Patrick being widely praised for his actions. In the press interviews that followed Patrick revealed a simple philosophy for his own personal beliefs on racism and why he had responded in the way he had. 'It's not black versus white, it's everyone versus the racists,' he said. In this poignant letter to his children, Patrick writes from the heart and shares the realities of life as a black man in Britain today.
The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr
Martin Luther King
Compiled from his own papers, this biography of Martin Luther King shows how the mild-mannered, inquisitive child and student rebelled against segregation and how as a dedicated young minister, he constantly questioned the depths of his faith and limits of his wisdom.
Becoming
Michelle Obama
In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America - the first African-American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerising storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world.
The Autobiography of Malcom X
Malcolm X
Written shortly before his assassination in 1965, this autobiography of Malcolm X traces his life from its violent beginnings in the Harlem Ghetto to his becoming one of the most important political figures of his time, and an icon in ours. Previous ed.: London: Hutchinson, 1966
Tribes: How Our Need To Belong Can Make Or Break The Good Society
David Lammy
David was the first black Briton to study at Harvard Law School and practised as a barrister before entering politics. He has served as the MP for Tottenham since 2000. Today, David is one of Parliament's most prominent and successful campaigners for social justice. He led the campaign for Windrush British citizens to be granted British citizenship and has been at the forefront of the fight for justice for the families affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. In 2007, inspired by the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and looking to explore his own African roots, David took a DNA test. It revealed that he was 25% Tuareg tribe (Niger), 25% Temne tribe (Sierra Leone), 25% Bantu tribe (South Africa), with 5% traces of Celtic Scotland and a mishmash of other unidentified groups. Both memoir and call-to-arms, 'Tribes' explores both the benign and malign effects of our need to belong.
Dreams From My Father: A Story Of Race And Inheritance
Barack Obama
In this memoir written at the age of 33, Barack Obama, son of a black African father and a white American mother, describes the search for meaning in his life as a black American.
Children and young adults
We’re Going to Find the Monster!
Malorie Blackman
Suitable for ages 0 – 5
Marvin is an ordinary boy who loves spending time with Grandpa, reading comics, and making science experiments with his best friend Joe. But everything changes when he discovers a mysterious superhero suit hidden in the attic . . . to his amazement, Marvin learns that he is next in a long line of superheroes. Now the time has come to meet his destiny!
When the Science Fair is thrown into chaos by super-villain Mastermind and her giant robot, Marvin is the only one who can stop them. Will Marvin be brave enough to step into his power-and into his superhero suit-to become the great and marvellous superhero Marv?
The first book in a powerful series of one boy's journey to unlock the superhero within.
Needle
Patrice Lawrence
Suitable for ages 11 – 14
Award-winning author Patrice Lawrence explores the harsh reality of the criminal justice system for young people in this riveting teen drama.
Charlene is a demon knitter. It’s the only thing she enjoys and the only thing she believes she’s really good at.
So when her foster mum’s son destroys her latest creation, Charlene loses it and stabs him in the hand with her knitting needle. It damages a nerve and she gets sucked into the criminal justice system for assault.
Charlene's not sorry and she’s never apologised to anyone in her life. But people keep telling her that if she says sorry, they’ll go easier on her. Can she bring herself to say it and not mean it when her freedom’s at stake?
Children of the World
Nicola Edwards
Suitable for ages 5 – 7
Discover what daily life is like for children across the world as we explore everything from food to family, and learn how to greet new friends in lots of different languages. See where it's polite to slurp your food and bad manners to give the thumbs up, and find out where you might travel to school by cable car or sleep on an oven bed at night!
My Skin, Your Skin
Laura Henry-Allain
Suitable for ages 5 - 7
My Skin Your Skin is a powerful book to help children and adults have meaningful discussions about race and anti-racism. Most importantly, the book empowers children to be the best versions of themselves; to have self-love, self-esteem and self-worth, irrespective of their skin colour.
This book was specifically written by Early Years expert and children's media creator, Laura Henry-Allain MBE, to support parents, teachers and carers to explain what racism is, why it is wrong, and what children can do if they see it or experience it. It also explores how important it is for children to celebrate their achievements and greatness.
Fully-illustrated throughout by talented illustrator Onyinye Iwu, My Skin, Your Skin is aimed at children aged four and above.
Containing explanations on key words and concepts written in child-friendly, accessible language, with relatable examples, this book supports children's understanding in building an anti-racist stance from an early age.
Forced to Flee: Refugee Children Drawing on their Experiences
Suitable for children 12+
Refugee children explain in their own words and pictures their thoughts, feelings and experiences about having to flee from their home countries.
Produced in association with UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and with a foreword from Cate Blanchett, Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, this highly emotive title focuses on three current refugee crises in Syria, South Sudan and Central America. Aimed at readers age 12+, the book gives background information about how each crisis came about, why families had to flee and what life is like for them now is given in a clear and easy-to-understand way.
Children from refugee camps were asked to draw about their experiences of having to flee their home countries. The children's artwork is incredibly powerful and harrowing, and vividly highlights the impact that conflict, war and atrocities has on people's lives.
Booked
Kwame Alexander
Young adults
Nobody can stop Nick Hall - he's a star on the football team, and life is about to get a whole lot sweeter when he asks out the girl of his dreams. But then a bombshell announcement shatters his world. Nick will need all his courage, both on and off the pitch.
Too Small Tola
Atinuke
7 – 9 years
Three delightful stories about Too -Small Tola, a young girl who, though small, is very determined. Tola lives in a flat in Lagos with her sister, Bola, who is very clever; her brother, Femi, who is very fast; and Grandmummy, who is very bossy. Tola proves to be stronger than she seems when she goes to market with Grandmummy and manages to carry home a basket full of yams and vegetables, chilli peppers and fish. When the taps in the flat don't work, it's Tola who brings water from the well, and it's Tola who saves the day when Mr Abdul, the tailor, needs his goods to be delivered quickly.
Boys Don’t Cry
Malorie Blackman
Young adults
You're about to receive your A-level results & then a future of university & journalism awaits. But the day they're due to arrive your old girlfriend turns up unexpectedly - with a baby. Your baby. You agree to look after it, just for an hour or two. Then she doesn't come back - and your life changes forever. Originally published: London: Doubleday, 2010
Luna Loves Art
Joseph Coelho
Picture book
At the gallery, Luna is transfixed by the famous art, but her classmate Finn doesn't seem to want to be there at all. Finn's family doesn't look like the one in Henry Moore's 'Family Group' sculpture, but then neither does Luna's. Maybe all Finn needs is a friend. Join Luna and Finn at the Art Gallery and step inside famous works of art by Van Gogh, Picasso, Jackson Pollock and more! Can you spot all the art? Created by award-winning poet Joseph Coelho, this book follows Luna Loves Library Day as an introduction to different typ