Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge (Young Readers Edition)
Erica Armstrong Dunbar & Kathleen Van Cleve

This historical account covers the story of Ona Judge, an enslaved woman who planned a daring escape from George Washington’s estate after the American Revolution. When he was elected president, Washington left Mount Vernon, bringing his slaves, including Ona, with him to Philadelphia. It’s there that Ona fled north in search of freedom. Never Caught details Washington’s various—and unsuccessful—attempts to find Ona and the clever ways she evaded his search.

Stella by Starlight
Sharon M. Draper

Your middle-grade readers will love this work of historical fiction by bestselling author Sharon M. Draper. In the Depression-era South, avoiding discrimination is next to impossible for Stella and her family. But after she accidentally witnesses a Ku Klux Klan rally late one night, life in her segregated community changes for the worse. Told through Stella’s perspective, this novel presents themes relating to prejudice, bravery, and hope in an accessible and ultimately inspiring way.

Clean Getaway
Nic Stone

Without his dad’s permission, eleven-year-old William “Scoob” Lamar and his grandmother, “G’ma,” embark on an impromptu road trip across the American South. For Scoob, it’s an escape from his dad’s strict rules. For G’ma, it’s a chance to finish a trip she and “G’pop” attempted in the 1960s. As they travel to key civil rights landmarks, G’ma reveals more about her past, including the hardships she and G’pop faced as an interracial couple. But when G’ma starts behaving strangely, Scoob suspects there’s more to this trip than he originally believed. Part history lesson, part family mystery, this fast-paced story makes an excellent addition to any middle-grade reading list.

Freewater
Amina Luqman-Dawson

A Newbery Medal winner, this historical middle-grade novel tells a story of courage in slavery-era America. When young Homer and his sister, Ada, escape from Southerland Plantation, they must leave their beloved mother behind. Soon they find Freewater, a hidden community of escaped slaves and freeborn children. Here, Homer almost forgets his painful past. But when an outside threat looms over Freewater, Homer faces a choice: return to Southerland to free his mother or risk the newfound freedom he’s only just begun to embrace.

Brown Girl Dreaming
Jacqueline Woodson

As a child, Jacqueline Woodson struggled with reading and writing, and in this award-winning bestseller, she uses poetry to bring her stunning memoir to life. Students will find Woodson’s eloquent poems a great source of inspiration, as she recounts what it was like growing up in the middle of the civil rights movement during the 1960s and 1970s.

Angel of Greenwood
Randi Pink

Known as “Black Wall Street,” the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is home to two very different teenagers. A follower of W. E. B. Du Bois, Isaiah, the town troublemaker, believes Black people should stand up and claim their place as equals. Angel, the goody-goody church girl, supports Booker T. Washington’s views, believing Black people should rise without conflict. Strangers at first, the two grow closer while working the same after-school job. But on May 31, 1921, everything changes when a vicious white mob destroys Greenwood, killing hundreds and displacing thousands. Told in alternating perspectives, Angel of Greenwood sheds new light on a nearly forgotten piece of American history.

The Black Kids
Christina Hammonds Reed

It’s April 1992, and Ashley Bennett and her friends are counting down the days to high school graduation. But everything changes when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a Black man named Rodney King. As a child of Black professionals and one of the few Black kids among her upper-class peers, Ashley soon finds herself having to confront what it means to be Black outside of her immediate circle. Strong language, violence, and sexuality make this book more suitable for older readers.

Libertie: A Novel
Kaitlyn Greenidge

In Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson, a free-born Black woman, seems destined to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a physician. But Libertie yearns to choose another path. After accepting a proposal from a young man from Haiti, Libertie moves to the island in hopes that she will be treated as an equal in society. However, Libertie finds that even in her new home, she lacks the freedom she desires. This historical novel addresses issues such as colorism, racism, and sexism with lyrical prose and unforgettable characters.

Kindred
Octavia E. Butler

Part Time Machine, part Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl, this amazing novel will enthrall your students as few other books can. Octavia Butler has created a terrifying mix of science fiction and history in which a twentieth-century African American woman is mysteriously transported to a slave plantation in the pre-Civil War South. This narrative is filled with unexplainable situations and unforgettable characters, as Dana, the hero, searches for the cause of the time travel while also experiencing the savagery of slavery. Kindred is sure to be at the top of the list of the most memorable books your students ever read.

The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead

Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Nickel Boys dramatizes the true story of a notorious reform school that operated for 111 years. In 1960s Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis, a Black student, finds himself unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy. There, he meets Turner, a cynical teenager who believes the only way to survive the dehumanizing school and its corrupt administration is to stay out of trouble. But as conditions worsen, Elwood and Turner hatch a plan to escape, not knowing that their actions will have irreparable consequences decades later.