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By Doreen Rappaport
This picture book biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Brings his life and the profound nature of his message to young children through his own words. Martin Luther King, Jr., Was one of the most influential and gifted speakers of all time. Doreen Rappaport uses quotes from some of his most beloved speeches to tell the story of his life and his work in a simple, direct way. Bryan Collier's stunning collage art combines remarkable watercolor paintings with vibrant patterns and textures. A timeline and a list of additional books and web sites help make this a standout biography of Dr. King.

One Crazy Summer
By Rita Williams-Garcia
In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
By Mildred D. Taylor
A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand.
Partridge exlores the events of March 7, 1965, known as Bloody Sunday, in Selma, Alabama, drawing on the vivid recollections of children who marched for the right to vote for black Americans.
By Nancy I. Sanders
 Frederick Douglass for Kids follows the footsteps of a true hero, one of the leading African Americans of his day. And to better appreciate Douglass and his times, readers will: form a debating club; create a sailor's tarpaulin hat and cravat that Douglass wore during his escape; make a Civil War haversack ; participate in a microlending program and more.
 By Christopher Paul Curtis
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
By Carole Boston Weatherford
Describes Tubman's spiritual journey as she hears the voice of God guiding her north to freedom on that very first trip to escape the brutal practice of forced servitude. Tubman would make nineteen subsequent trips back South, never being caught, but none as profound as this first one.
By Deborah Hopkinson
 As a seamstress in the Big House, Clara is luckier than the slaves who work the fields. Still, she dreams of a reunion with her Momma, who lives on another plantation-and even of running away to freedom. Then she hears two slaves talking about how they could find the Underground Railroad if only they had a map. In a flash of inspiration, Clara sees how she can use the cloth in her scrap bag to make a map of the land-a freedom quilt-that no master will ever suspect. Drawn from true incidents in African-American history, this is a compelling and emotionally charged picture book.
By Laurie Halse Anderson
 When her former owner breaks his promise to set her free and ends up sending her to live with a cruel loyalist family at the start of the Revolutionary War, Isabel is heartbroken and so becomes determined to do whatever is necessary to win her freedom, including spying on her family to help the rebels win the war.
By Jen Cullerton Johnson
A biography of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmentalist Wangari Maathai, a female scientist who made a stand in the face of opposition to women's rights and her own Greenbelt Movement, an effort to restore Kenya's ecosystem by planting millions of trees.
Examines the role of African-Americans in the military through the history of the Triple Nickles, America's first black paratroopers, who fought against attacks perpetrated on the American West by the Japanese during World War II.
Ruby Bridges tells the story of how she helped end racial segregation in the New Orleans public school system when she was in the first grade.
By Kathleen Olmstead
After traveling for weeks with Robert E. Peary and his team in frigid conditions, he became the first man to reach the North Pole. However, it took decades for the African-American explorer to be recognized for his extraordinary achievements. Here is the story of Henson’s dramatic, groundbreaking life.

By Kadir Nelson
Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through the decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. Illustrations from oil paintings by artist Kadir Nelson.

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