Books You Might Like:

African American Authors

If you come softly by Jacqueline Woodson.

After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with peoples' reactions.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.0

Behind you by Jacqueline Woodson.

After fifteen-year-old Jeremiah is mistakenly shot by police, the people who love him struggle to cope with their loss as they recall his life and death, unaware that 'Miah is watching over them.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.1

Brother hood by Janet McDonald.

Sixteen-year-old Nate, an academically gifted student who attends an exclusive private boarding school, straddles two cultures as he returns home for occasional visits to see his family and "gangsta crew" in Harlem, New York.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.0

Twists and turns by Janet McDonald.

With the help of a couple of successful friends, eighteen- and nineteen-year-old Teesha and Keeba try to capitalize on their talents by opening a hair salon in the run-down Brooklyn housing project where they live.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.4

Jason & Kyra by Dana Davidson.

Kyra Evans, a smart, less than popular high-schooler begins to fall for Jason Vincent, a popular basketball star.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.7

Purple hibiscus : a novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

In the city of Enugu, Nigeria, fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother, Jaja, lead a privileged life. Their Papa is a wealthy and respected businessman; they live in a beautuful house; and they attend an exclusive missionary school. But, their home life is anything but harmonious. Her father, a fanatically religious man, has impossible expectations of his children and wife, and severely punishes them if they’re less than perfect. After getting a taste of freedom during a visit to their aunt's home, tension within the family escalates and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together after her mother commits a desparate act.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.8

Who am I without him? : short stories about girls and the boys in their lives by Sharon G. Flake.

Presents ten short stories about teenage girls struggling with issues of self-worth. Titles include: So I ain't no good girl -- The ugly one -- Wanted: a thug -- I know a stupid boy when I see one -- Mookie in love -- Don't be disrespecting me -- I like white boys -- Jacob's rules -- Hunting for boys -- A letter to my daughter.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.0

Relative interest by Anita Bunkley.

Kira finds herself battling for custody of her niece, after finding out that a powerful white mayoral candidate and his family plan to adopt the girl.

Trouble man : a novel by Travis Hunter.

Jermaine Banks is good-hearted young man, but the lure of the streets is more appealing than the straight and narrow. Having grown up without a father, he is commtted to being present for his children, although the lifestyle he has chosen leaves no guarrantees. A very emotional story about a man making choices about being a man for his self-esteem and for the respect of his family.

The hearts of men : a novel by Travis Hunter.

Three African-American men examine their lives when they are faced with life-changing conflicts: Prodigy Banks' violent, promiscuous past has come back to haunt him; Bernard Charles' workaholic tendencies have led his wife to infidelity; and Winston "Poppa Doc" Fuller must resolve issues with his son before he dies of lung cancer.

Love by Toni Morrison.

Powerful Bill Casey, owner of “the best and best-known vacation spots for colored folks on the East Coast”, has been dead for years, but his women are still grappling over him.

The bluest eye by Toni Morrison

An eleven-year-old African-American girl in Ohio, in the early 1940s, prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be beautiful.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.2

Paradise by Toni Morrison.

Four young women living in a convent near Ruby, Oklahoma, are viciously attacked in 1976 after residents become convinced the women are the source of the problems that have been sweeping the exclusively African-American community.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.8

Leslie : a novel by Omar Tyree.

New Orleans college student Leslie Beaudet, tormented by family problems and a violent incident from the past, snaps when she learns her boyfriend is cheating on her with a waitress, and turns to the practice of voodoo to help rid herself of her problems.

Single mom : a novel by Omar Tyree.

As Denise struggles to raise her two sons, run a business, and start a relationship with a new man, she feels her life is complicated enough, but when both of her sons' fathers decide they want to take a more active role in their sons' lives, Denise finds herself balancing more than she can handle.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.2

Sweet St. Louis : a novel by Omar Tyree.

When Anthony Poole tries his latest pick-up line on Sharron Francis, the couple finds themselves struggling with issues of commitment and love.

It ain't all for nothin' by Walter Dean Myers.

A young African-American boy must decide whether to go along with his father, who is a thief, or reject his father's way of life and risk losing him.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.5

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.1

Fallen angels by Walter Dean Myers.

Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

Accelerated Reader--Level 4.2

I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou.

Sensitive autobiography of a black woman who retains her personal human dignity.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level --Level 6.7

Gather together in my name by Maya Angelou.

Continues Angelou's autobiography, "I know why the caged bird sings." As this book begins she is in her teens and has given birth to a son.

And still I rise by Maya Angelou.

A collection of thirty-one poems written by Maya Angelou.

Bombingham : a novel by Anthony Grooms.

When Walter Burke is asked to write a letter to the parents of a fallen friend and fellow soldier, he is taken back to his own childhood amidst the Civil Rights Movement.

And all our wounds forgiven by Julius Lester.

Tells the story of fictional civil rights leader John Calvin Marshall's brief, turbulent, charismatic life in four alternating voices: that of his wife, Andrea; Lisa Adams, his aide and mistress; Bobby Card, a southern civil rights leader; and his own.

Cane River by Lalita Tademy.

A fact-based novel in which the author draws upon her own family history to trace four generations of African-American women from slavery on a Creole plantation to the pre-civil rights South.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 6.5

Toning the sweep by Angela Johnson.

On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of cancer in her house in the desert, fourteen-year-old Emmie hears many stories about the past and her family history.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.7

Heaven by Angela Johnson.

Fourteen-year-old Marley's seemingly perfect life in the small town of Heaven is disrupted when she discovers that her father and mother are not her real parents.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.7

The first part last by Angela Johnson.

Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 4.7

South Town by Lorenz Graham

David Williams encounters bigotry and violence in this novel of an African American family living in a small town in the south.

North Town by Lorenz Graham

David Williams, newly arrived from a small town in the south, encounters racial prejudice in a northern city.

Whose town? by Lorenz Graham

David Williams must decide which course of action to take in the African American struggle for civil rights.

Men cry in the dark by Michael Baisden.

African-American businessmen Derrick, Tony, Benjamin, and Mark, friends since childhood, find themselves struggling with issues of relationships, dating, marriage, and fatherhood.

My soul to keep by Tananarive Due.

Dawit, one of a sect of Ethiopian scholars who traded his soul for eternal life four hundred years earlier, threatens to break his vow of secrecy in order to keep his beloved wife Jessica and daughter Kira with him forever.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.5

The between : a novel by Tananarive Due.

Hilton James, saved from drowning by his grandmother at the cost of her own life when he was a boy, is haunted by nightmares thirty years later as a man stalks his wife and children.

Accelerated Reader Reading Level - 5.7

Children of the night : the best short stories by black writers, 1967 to the present edited by Gloria Naylor.

A compilation of short stories written by black authors from 1967 to 1995, that present a portrait of the African-American experience in the post-Civil Rights era.