As educators across the world initiate tough but necessary conversations with their students to address systemic racial injustice, one of the most important immediate actions you can take is to amplify Black voices and stories. To that end, there are plenty of fiction and nonfiction titles available to help educate both you and your students as you listen, learn, reflect and act.

If you’re looking for a place to start, we’ve compiled the recommendations below for both younger and older student readers.

Juvenile titles

  1. New Kid by Jerry Craft
  2. Ghost by Jason Reynolds
  3. The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson (Author) and Rafael López (Illustrator)
  4. One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
  5. Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams
  6. Hair Love by Matthew Cherry (Author) and Vashti Harrison (Illustrator)
  7. A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
  8. Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
  9. The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert
  10. Hey Black Child by Useni Eugene Perkins (Author) and Bryan Collier (Illustrator)
  11. Something Happened in Our Town by Marianne Celano PhD, Marietta Collins PhD and Ann Hazzard PhD
  12. We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices by Wade Hudson (Editor) and Cheryl Willis Hudson (Editor)
  13. Hands Up! by Breanna J. McDaniel (Author) by Shane W. Evans (Illustrator)
  14. The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander (Author) and Kadir Nelson (Illustrator)
  15. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
  16. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
  17. Can I Touch Your Hair? by Irene Latham (Author) and Charles Waters (Author)
  18. This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell (Author) and Aurelia Durand (Illustrator)

YA & adult titles

  1. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  2. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
  3. Dear Martin by Nic Stone
  4. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds (Author) and Brendan Kiely (Author)
  5. Stamped — Racism, Anti-Racism and You by Jason Reynolds (Author) and Ibram X. Kendi (Author)
  6. Monster by Walter Dean Myers
  7. SLAY by Brittney Morris
  8. Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson (Author) and Ellen Hagan (Author)
  9. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
  10. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
  11. March, Book 1 by John Lewis (Author)and Andrew Aydin (Author)
  12. March, Book 2 by John Lewis (Author) and Andrew Aydin (Author)
  13. March, Book 3  by John Lewis (Author) and Andrew Aydin (Author)
  14. Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe
  15. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
  16. Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
  17. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
  18. When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors (Author) and asha bandele (Author)
  19. From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
  20. A Good Time for the Truth by Sun Yung Shin (Editor)