EPL.ca: Black History Month: Books for Teens

Bronx Masquerade - Nikki Grimes
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.

Day of Tears - Julius Lester
Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave "assets", possibly including Emma.

Elijah of Buxton - Christopher Paul Curtis*
Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in a Canadian settlement for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.

Glory Field - Walter Dean Myers
Follows a family's history, from the capture of an African boy in the 1750s through the lives of his descendants, as their dreams and circumstances lead them away from and back to the small plot of land in South Carolina that they call the Glory Field.

Land - Mildred Taylor
After the Civil War, Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, finds himself caught between the two worlds as he pursues his dream of owning land of his own.

Miracle's Boys - Jacqueline Woodson
Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.

No Laughter Here - Rita Williams-Garcia
10-year-old Akilah is determined to find out why her closest friend, Victoria, is silent and withdrawn after returning to New York from a trip to see her grandmother in Nigeria.

One Thing That's True - Cheryl Foggo*
Thirteen-year-old Roxanne lives in Calgary and is looking forward to her best summer ever, but it seems like everyone else in her life as other plans.

Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam - Walter Dean Myers
A young American soldier comes face to face with the enemy in Vietnam. Story is told in a poem and illustrated with collage by Ann Grifalconi.

Return of Buddy Bush - Shelia P Moses
Pattie Mae travels from North Carolina to Harlem in 1947 to find her uncle Buddy who has escaped from the Ku Klux Klan.

Running Back to Ludie - Angela Johnson
A young woman with only vague recollections of her mother has the opportunity to see her again.

Skin I'm In - Sharon Flake
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.

Bound for America: The Forced Migration of Africans to the New World - James Haskins and Kathleen Benson
The European enslavement of Africans, including their capture, branding, conditions on slave ships, shipboard mutinies, and arrival in the Americas.

Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and her Students - Suzanne Jurmain
A determined woman faced great opposition when she establised one of the first schools for African American students in the nineteenth century in Connecticut.

M.L.K.: Journey of a King - Tonya Bolden
The inspirational life story of an important American, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nelson Mandela - Ann Kramer
This well-illustrated Twentieth-Century History Makers series title covers Mandela's early years, imprisonment and presidency.

North Star to Freedom: The Story of the Underground Railroad - Gena Gorrell*
Meet some of the men and women who planned daring and ingenious ways to escape slavery, as well as some of the brave people who risked their lives to help others be free.

On My Journey Now: Looking at African-American History Through Spirituals - Nikki Giovanni
Traces the way people in slavery created sacred songs to tell their stories and the continued meaning of those songs.

Oscar: The Life and Music of Oscar Peterson - Reva Marin*
Starting from his childhood in Montreal, this book covers more than 50 years of internationally-renowned jazz artist Oscar Peterson's life and career.

Rapid Ray: The Story of Ray Lewis - John Cooper*
An engaging biography of the first Canadian-born black athlete to join a Canadian Olympic track-and-field team, battling racism and prejudice before winning a bronze medal in 1932.

Strength of These Arms: Life in the Slave Quarters - Raymond Bial
Photo essay describes how slaves were able to preserve some elements of their African heritage despite the brutal treatment they experienced on Southern plantations.

Trials and Triumphs: The Story of African-Canadians - Lawrence Hill*
Traces the arrival of black settlers and immigrants between 1606 and the early 1900s. Also includes a timeline of events and the contributions of prominent black Canadians.

Wake Up Our Souls: A Celebration of Black American Artists - Tonya Bolden
Highlights influential and important 20th-century artists, from the early part of the century to the Harlem Renaissance to the contemporary art scene.

We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin - Larry Dane Brimner
The life story of Bayard Rustin, a peaceful activist for equality. Rustin was largely responsible for the organizing the walk for freedom and jobs that took place in Washington, D.C. in 1963.

Beast - Walter Dean Myers
A visit to his Harlem neighbourhood and the discovery that the girl he loves is using drugs give sixteen-year-old Anthony Witherspoon a new perspective both on his home and his life at a Connecticut prep school.

Copper Sun - Sharon Draper
In the 18th century, two fifteen-year-old girls escape their Carolina plantation in search of a Spanish colony in Florida that gives sanctuary to slaves.

Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad - Minister Faust*
Hamza and Yehat are roommates and soul brothers living in Edmonton when a mysterious woman enlists their help to find an ancient relic that may affect the future of all living beings.

Every Time a Rainbow Dies - Rita Williams-Garcia
After seeing a girl raped and becoming obsessed with her, sixteen-year-old Thulani finds motivation to move beyond his interest in his pigeons and his grief over his mother's death.

George & Rue - George Elliott Clarke*
A novel based on the true story of the 1949 murder of a taxi driver in New Brunswick.

Jason & Kyra - Dana Davidson
Opposites attract in this romance set in an upscale African American high school in Detroit.

Kipligat's Chance - David Nandi Odhiambo*
A seventeen-year-old Kenyan immigrant trains hard to become a track star and tries to outrun his troubles as comes of age in Vancouver.

Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A 15-year-old Nigerian woman is coming of age at a time when both her country and family are on the cusp of change.

Second Life of Samuel Tyne - Esi Edugyan*
A black civil servant quits his job and moves with his wife and twin 12-year-old daughters to the quiet town of Aster, Alberta when he inherits a rambling old house in the country from a mysterious uncle. Before long, the twins are behaving very strangely in this gothic horror story.

Twists and Turns - Janet McDonald
With the help of friends, eighteen- and nineteen-year-old Teesha and Keeba try to capitalize on their talents by opening a hair salon in the rundown Brooklyn housing project where they live.

Tyrell - Coe Booth
Tyrell lives with his spaced-out mother and little brother in a homeless shelter while his father is in prison. He feels he needs to score some money to make things better, but will he end up following in his father's footsteps?

What They Found: Love on 145th Street - Walter Dean Myers
Interrelated short stories explore different aspects of love, such as a dying father's determination to help start a family business; the relationship of two teens who plan to remain celibate until they marry; and finding hope while fighting in Afghanistan.

Blacks in Deep Snow: Black Pioneers in Canada - Colin Thomson
Documents historical persecution of blacks in Canada, with a special emphasis on the events in the western part of the country.

For Jackson: A Time Capsule from his Two Grandmothers - Leila Sujir
An NFB film featuring Rosemary Brown and Ruth Horricks-Sujir.

Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal - Afua Cooper
The true story of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a slave woman who was convicted of starting afire that destroyed a large part of Montréal in April 1734. Cooper brings an unknown chapter in Canadian history to life with this narrative of a woman who refused to accept her indentured lot and, at the same time, she completely demolishes the myth of a benign, slave-free Canada.

I Came As a Stranger: The Underground Railroad - Bryan Prince
Prior to abolition in 1865, as many as 40,000 people made the perilous trip from slavery in the United States to freedom in Canada. Told from a Canadian perspective, this book also documents the lives of these fugitives after they reached Canada.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
Poet Maya Angelou recounts her youth: a time of disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and, finally, hard-won independence.

Middle Passage: White Ships, Black Cargo - Tom Feelings
A concise narrative of the slave trade to the Americas is followed by a visual record, rendered in black, grey and white artwork.

Rap and Hip Hop - Jared Green, editor
An anthology of articles and essays cover rap's legitimacy as music, the economic impact of hip hop on society, and its influences on other areas of popular culture.

Spirit of Africville - Africville Genealogical Society
For over 150 years, until the City of Halifax demolished the houses in the 1960s, Africville was a community of black families in Nova Scotia.

Stylin': African American Expressive Culture from its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit - Shane White
African American culture -- from the 19th-century dandy mocked by whites to today's baggy hip-hop clothing -- has helped make black survival possible in America, both as link to the homeland and as voice of resistance.

Unnatural Causes - Lillian Allen
A six-minute film in which Lillian Allen dramatizes her poem about poverty in Canada.

African Canadian Online

Black History Month in Canada

Ontario Black History Society

*denotes Canadian author; updated October 2008