by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
Published 1995 by Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers

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A wonderful middle-grade novel narrated by Kenny, 9, about his middle-class black family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. When Kenny's 13-year-old brother, Byron, gets to be too much trouble, they head South to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the one person who can shape him up. And they happen to be in Birmingham when Grandma's church is blown up.

by James Lincoln Collier
Jump Ship to Freedom
Published 1987 by Yearling Books

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Young Daniel Arabus and his mother are slaves in the house of Captain Ivers of Stratford, Connecticut. By law they should be free, since Daniel's father fought in the Revolutionary army and earned enough in soldiers' notes to buy his family's freedom.

But now Daniel's father is dead, and Mrs. Ivers has taken the notes from his mother. When Daniel bravely steals the notes back, a furious Captain Ivers forces him aboard a ship bound for the West Indies--and certain slavery. Even if Daniel can manage to jump ship in New York, will he be able to travel the long and dangerous road to freedom?

by James Lincoln Collier
War Comes to Willy Freeman
Published 1987 by Yearling Books

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Willy Freeman's life changes forever when she witnesses her father's death at the hands of the Redcoats and returns home to find that the British have taken her mother as a prisoner to New York City.

Willy, disguised as a boy, begins her long search for her mother and luckily finds a haven at the famous Fraunces Tavern. But even with the help of Sam Fraunces and her fellow worker, Horace, Willy knows that to be black, female, and free leaves her open to danger at every turn. What will tomorrow bring?

by Christopher Paul Curtis
Bud, Not Buddy
Published 1999 by Delacorte Press

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It's 1936, in Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud's got a few things going for him:

1. He has his own suitcase filled with his own important, secret things.

2. He's the author of Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.

3. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers of Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!!

Bud's got an idea that those flyers will lead him to his father. Once he decides to hit the road and find this mystery man, nothing can stop him--not hunger, not fear, not vampires, not even Herman E. Calloway himself.

Bud, Not Buddy is full of laugh-out-loud humor and wonderful characters, hitting the high notes of jazz and sounding the deeper tones of the Great Depression. Once again Christopher Paul Curtis, author of the award-winning novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963, takes readers on a heartwarming and unforgettable journey.

by Pamela J. Dell
Aquila's Drinking Gourd: A Story of the Underground Railroad
Published 2002 by Child's World

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Each volume in this innovative historical-fiction series is designed to look like a scrapbook created by the story's main character. From the Great San Francisco Earthquake to the Underground Railroad to Colonial Boston, each period comes vividly to life in events chosen for their curricular relevance. Elementary students will love the activity section that encourages readers to write their own historical fiction, offers instructions for personal scrapbooking, and provides lessons in compiling oral history from family and friends.

by Dan Gutman
Satch & Me
Published 2006 by Amistad Press

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To see if Satchel Paige really was the fastest pitcher in the history of baseball, Stosh and his coach, Flip, travel back to 1942 to watch Satch pitch in the Negro League World Series. Stunning black-and-white photos of the league's superstars are included.

by Virginia Hamilton
The House of Dies Drear
Published 1984 by Simon Pulse

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"An absorbing mystery (about a Negro boy's house, once part of the Underground Railroad), enriched with perceptive insights into certain aspects of the Negro American's heritage."--"Booklist." An ALA Notable Children's Book. A "School Library Journal" Best of the Best. Winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award.

by Zoe Lewis
Keisha Discovers Harlem Hc
Published 1998 by Magic Attic Press

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by Alice McGill
Miles' Song
Published 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company

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The year is 1851. Miles is a slave. By the shrewdness of his Mama Cee, he was assigned at an early age to work in the great house on the Tillery Plantation. Like the other servants-in-training, Miles is proud to wear soft wool knee britches and to use the speech of the great house. Each day he helps to provide the creature comforts of a well-run mansion. Until he is caught looking at the open pages of a book. As a punishment, twelve-year-old Miles is sent to the breaking ground. There he experiences what it really means to be a slave. With the help of a mysterious man named Elijah, Miles learns to read and forms a pact to escape. Watching and waiting, Miles takes risk after risk to gain freedom for himself and Mama Cee in a story that will inspire readers of all ages.

by Patricia C. McKissack
A Friendship for Today
Published 2007 by Scholastic Press

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In 1954 Missouri, 12-year-old Rosemary Patterson is about to make history as one of the first African-American students to enter the all-white school in her town. When the girl who has shown her the most cruelty becomes an unlikely confidante, Rosemary learns important truths about the power of friendship to overcome prejudice.

by Patricia C. McKissack
A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859
Published 1997 by Scholastic

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by Rita Murphy
Black Angels
Published 2001 by Delacorte Press

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by Walter Dean Myers
My Name Is America: The Journal of Biddy Owens, Birmingham, Alabama, 1948
Published 2001 by Scholastic

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May 3

It's hard not to worry about white folks' ball because now that Jackie Robinson is playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Larry Doby is playing with the Cleveland Indians, everybody is thinking about going up. Just a year ago, Jackie played with the Kansas City Monarchs and Doby played with the Newark Eagles. Piper said that some of the players were so busy looking around for white scouts, they couldn't find the ball.

by Gary Paulsen
The Legend of Bass Reeves: Being the True and Fictional Account of the Most Valiant Marshal in the West
Published 2006 by Wendy Lamb Books

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Born into slavery, Bass Reeves became the most successful US Marshal of the Wild West.

Many "heroic lawmen" of the Wild West, familiar to us through television and film, were actually violent scoundrels and outlaws themselves. But of all the sheriffs of the frontier, one man stands out as a true hero: Bass Reeves.

He was the most successful Federal Marshal in the US in his day. True to the mythical code of the West, he never drew his gun first. He brought hundreds of fugitives to justice, was shot at countless times, and never hit.

Bass Reeves was a black man, born into slavery. And though the laws of his country enslaved him and his mother, when he became a free man he served the law, with such courage and honor that he became a legend.

by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Abraham Lincoln: Letters from Slave Girl
Published 2001 by Winslowhouse International

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by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Hold Fast to Dreams
Published 1995 by Morrow Junior Books

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by Harriette Gillem Robinet
Walking to the Bus Rider Blues
Published 2000 by Atheneum Books

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Twelve-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his older sister, and their grandmother struggle for rent money, food, and their dignity as they participate in the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott in the summer of 1956.

by Roni Schotter
F Is for Freedom
Published 2000 by DK Publishing

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by Alfred Slote
Finding Buck McHenry
Published 1991 by HarperCollins Publishers

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by Eleanora E. Tate
Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr!
Published 1990 by Franklin Watts

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