Channie Waites
Author
Language
English
Description
The story of one family's journey north during the Great Migration starts with a little girl in South Carolina who finds a rope under a tree one summer. She has no idea the rope will become part of her family's history. But for three generations, that rope is passed down, used for everything from jump rope games to tying suitcases onto a car for the big move north to New York City, and even for a family reunion where that first little girl is now...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5 - AR Pts: 7
Language
English
Description
What do you do when the world shuts down? A heartwarming story of friendship and overcoming adversity in a time of COVID, When the World Turns Upside Down is about community, giving back, and understanding the world around us through the power of generosity from debut middle grade author K. Ibura. Nobody expected a tiny little virus to change the whole world in such a big way, especially not Shayla, Liam, Ai, and Ben. But when school closes to keep...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Coming of age as a free-born Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her mother, a physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie will go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie feels stifled by her mother's choices and is constantly reminded that, unlike her mother, Libertie has skin that is too dark. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Inspired by creole traditions, Charmed Life is the second book in Marti Dumas's fun, middle-grade contemporary fantasy Wildseed Witch series with an all BIPOC cast, about a social media–loving tween—and witch!
After a summer of being the worst witch at a fancy witch school, Hasani can't wait to get back to the peace and normalcy of Riverbend Middle where she knows all the rules and is destined to be captain of...
After a summer of being the worst witch at a fancy witch school, Hasani can't wait to get back to the peace and normalcy of Riverbend Middle where she knows all the rules and is destined to be captain of...
5) Sky color
Author
Series
Creatrilogy volume 3
Accelerated Reader
IL: LG - BL: 2.2 - AR Pts: 1
Language
English
Description
"Marisol loves to paint. So when her teacher asks her to help make a mural for the school library, she can't wait to begin! But wait-how can Marisol ever make a sky without blue paint? After gazing out the bus window and watching from her porch as day turns into night, she closes her eyes and starts to dream"--
Author
Series
Lola books (Anna McQuinn) volume 2
Accelerated Reader
IL: LG - BL: 2.2 - AR Pts: 1
Language
English
Formats
Description
Lola loves to hear Daddy read a new library book each night, an activity that spurs her imagination and results in inventive play the next day.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.7 - AR Pts: 6
Language
English
Formats
Description
Twelve-year-old Neva and her older brother Clayton have been left with their grandparents for the summer, and she is having a difficult time dealing with change: the changes to her body, changes with her relationships with her brother who is becoming involved with social activism and their multicultural community (and with Michelle, the sexy girl across the street), and with her best friend, Jamila, whose father is from Ghana--Neva is growing up and...
8) Like Vanessa
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.9 - AR Pts: 10
Language
English
Formats
Description
Middle graders will laugh and cry with thirteen-year-old Vanessa Martin as she tries to be like Vanessa Williams, the first black Miss America. In this semi-autobiographical debut novel set in 1983, Vanessa Martin's real-life reality of living with family in public housing in Newark, New Jersey is a far cry from the glamorous Miss America stage. She struggles with a mother she barely remembers, a grandfather dealing with addiction and her own battle...
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.7 - AR Pts: 12
Language
English
Formats
Description
A fun middle-grade contemporary fantasy with an all-BIPOC cast, about a social-media-loving tween who gets sent to an ultra-private witch camp
Hasani's post-seventh-grade summer to-do list is pretty simple: get a bigger following for her makeup YouTube channel and figure out how to get her parents back together. What she does NOT expect is that an emotional outburst will spark a latent magical ability in her. Or that the magic will be strong enough...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 4.3 - AR Pts: 7
Language
English
Description
Told from two viewpoints, Atlanta high school seniors Lena and Campbell, one black, one white, must rely on each other to survive after a football rivalry escalates into a riot.
Over the course of one night, two girls with two very different backgrounds must rely on each other to get through the violent race riot that has enveloped their city. Lena has her killer style, her awesome boyfriend, and a plan. She knows she's going to make it big. Campbell,...
11) Roman and Jewel
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
If Romeo and Juliet got the Hamilton treatment…who would play the leads? This vividly funny, honest, and charming romantic novel by Dana L. Davis is the story of a girl who thinks she has what it takes…and the world thinks so, too.
Jerzie Jhames will do anything to land the lead role in Broadway’s hottest new show, Roman and Jewel, a Romeo and Juliet inspired hip-hopera featuring a diverse cast and modern twists on the play. But her hopes are...
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.5 - AR Pts: 7
Language
English
Formats
Description
It's 1863, and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker.
Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have set...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Coretta Scott King winner Andrea Davis Pinkney brings her talents to a brand-new Dear America diary about the Civil Rights Movement.In the fall of 1955, twelve-year-old Dawn Rae Johnson's life turns upside down. After the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Dawnie learns she will be attending a previously all-white school. She's the only one of her friends to go to this new school and to leave the comfort of all that is familiar to...
14) Thunder Run
Author
Series
Dactyl Hill Squad volume 3
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.3 - AR Pts: 9
Language
English
Formats
Description
Magdalys's connection with the dinosaurs has led the US Army to some important victories, but the Civil War's not over yet and the squad members find themselves fighting deep in the Louisiana bayou. Then General Ulysses S. Grant himself entrusts Magdalys with a top secret mission -- one that the very success of the Union depends on. Because as the friends will soon find out, the United States has more than one enemy.
Imperial troops are gathering...
15) Freedom Fire
Author
Series
Dactyl Hill Squad volume 2
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.7 - AR Pts: 9
Language
English
Formats
Description
Magdalys and the squad are flying south on pteroback. South to rescue her older brother. South to war.
The squad links up with the dino-mounted troops of the Louisiana Native Guard, an all-black regiment in the Union Army fighting to free their people. They're led by General Sheridan, surrounded by enemy forces in Tennessee and desperate for any edge to sway the tide of battle. Magdalys's burgeoning powers might be the Union's last hope. But she...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie's plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure. Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
When Emilie and Daniel arrive in Silk Harbor, Professor Abindon, an old colleague of the Marlendes, warns them that she's observed something strange and potentially deadly in the sky, a disruption in an upper air aether current. But, as the Marlendes investigate further, they realize it's a ship from another aetheric plane. It may be just a friendly explorer, or something far more sinister, but they will have to take an airship into the dangerous...
18) Mercury Boys
Author
Language
English
Description
History and the speculative collide with the modern world when a group of high school girls form a secret society after discovering they can communicate with boys from the past, in this powerful look at female desire, jealousy, and the shifting lines between friendship and rivalry.
After her life is upended by divorce and a cross-country move, 16-year-old Saskia Brown feels like an outsider at her new school—not only is she a transplant, but she's...
19) Say Her Name
Author
Language
English
Description
These poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter. Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries to create a chorus of voices celebrating the creativity, resilience, and courage of Black women and girls. This collection features forty-nine powerful poems, four of which are tribute poems inspired by the works of Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, and Phillis Wheatley. This...
20) Meet Miss Fancy
Author
Language
English
Description
A charming and significant story set prior to the Civil Rights Movement about a boy who finds a way to challenge segregation laws. Frank has always been obsessed with elephants. He loves their hosepipe trunks, tree stump feet, and swish-swish tails. So when Miss Fancy, the elephant, retires from the circus and moves two blocks from his house to Avondale Park, he's over the moon! Frank really wants to pet her. But Avondale Park is just for white people,...